Every Girl Like Me
by Stratusfied247
Summary: AU - A winter storm hits Port Charles, bringing love, revelations, and the chance to move on.  Story title is from the Sugarland song "Every Girl Like Me."
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: AU - I'm mixing a bunch of different past storylines for this one. This is set a little less than a year after Lucky Spencer's return from the dead. I am using the "Carly intro" storyline to bring Sam to town instead. AJ is still alive (and, as always, I refer to Sean Kanan's AJ). For the purposes of this story, Maxie is only a couple of years younger than Lucky. I'm pretty much aging the characters to what I want them to be, since the show has played with their ages all over the place. SORAS for the win! Pairings are:**

**Jason/Sam, Elizabeth/AJ, Nikolas/Emily, Lucky/Maxie, Jax/Alexis**

**This is my first time writing two of these couples, so hopefully it turns out okay.**

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"I'll take that."

Elizabeth Webber's head whipped around so quickly that her dark brown hair slapped her face. The hair hooked on her nose and eyelashes, and she fought it until it went back to its rightful place behind her ears. Of course, it fell back into her face, because why should anything go the way she wanted it to go? Not even her own hair was under her control. It was just kind of life she was having lately.

She watched as AJ Quartermaine took a drink from the glass, but she only watched for half a sip. There wasn't a person in town that didn't know about AJ's drinking problem. Elizabeth may have been in a really pissy mood, but she wasn't a complete jerk. She snatched the glass back from him halfway through the drink and it spilled down his chin.

"Thanks," AJ said with a grunt, swatting at the specks of whiskey that fell on his shirt. "Now, I'm going to smell like liquor."

"That's what you get." Elizabeth finished the glass and put it down on the bar. She waved at the bartender and said, "Another, please."

"Make it club soda," AJ said as the bartender came their way. "Actually, make it two." AJ sat down on a bar stool beside Elizabeth and she groaned. AJ either didn't hear her or didn't care. He probably didn't care.

"I was doing just fine before you got here," Elizabeth said.

"I can see that." AJ grunted. He picked up a napkin from the bar and blotted at the whiskey stain on his shirt. "Luckily," he said, "whiskey comes out in the wash."

Elizabeth groaned. She was amazed at how often she could hear some form of that word now and only think of him. Before she was ever forced to live in Port Charles, lucky meant a lot of things. Now, it just meant her first true love and every incarnation of the word reminded her that he wasn't hers anymore. That he may never be hers again.

With a grunt, Elizabeth said, "I'm sure you can afford another one if you need it."

"Uh huh." AJ rolled his eyes. "Are you even old enough to be in here? I realize Jake's doesn't card that often, but…"

"I look young for my age," Elizabeth said with a groan. The bartender came back and put three glasses of club soda in front of them. At the third, he gestured to AJ's shirt. AJ nodded and dipped a napkin in, then started blotting the whiskey stain. Good, she thought. Let him pay attention to his shirt and not to her. Maybe she could sneak another drink out of the bartender without him knowing.

Elizabeth had been a good girl for a while now, and that was because of Lucky… and what had happened to her. She had blamed herself for that Valentine's night in the park. If she wasn't so hard-headed. If she didn't dress the way she used to dress. If she had just been more like Sarah… It was Lucky that had convinced her that it wasn't her fault, that she hadn't been "asking for it." He had taught her how to be a person again. He had shown her love, and the night of the fire, he had inadvertantly taught her how to hurt like nothing she'd felt before.

Now… Now, Lucky was teaching her something else. He was teaching her that things didn't last, that life changed people. She should have known that. Hadn't she been changed after the rape? The feisty Elizabeth was still in there somewhere, but she was more subdued. She had been changed for the better, though. Lucky…

"He's so different, now," Elizabeth said. She didn't realize that she was talking out loud until she saw AJ's head jerk up in her direction. Elizabeth shook her head. "Sorry," she said. "I shouldn't have said anything."

"It's fine," he said with a shrug. "You obviously need to say it."

"That's what people keep telling me," Elizabeth said. "Nikolas and Emily… They have this idea that I need to tell Lucky how I feel, and that I need to tell them how I feel, too, but.. I've tried telling Lucky how I feel, and he doesn't care."

"I doubt that."

"Doubt all you want," Elizabeth said, "but it's true. He doesn't care, because he's not the same Lucky that died in that fire. Whatever Helena did to him while he was gone…" She shook her head and sighed. "The light's gone in his eyes, ya know? Or, at least it is when he looks at me. I used to think Lucky and I were going to be forever, but now… Now, I don't even know if we can be friends."

That's what hurt Elizabeth the most, that the friendship was gone. She had counted on Lucky, trusted him, needed him. Now, she could barely talk to him. She knew it was partially her own fault. She could lay all the blame on Helena, but the truth was that she expected him to be something that he wasn't any more. A lot had happened since the night of the fire, and Lucky had changed. Elizabeth liked to think that she had changed, too, that she was a different person than the one that had tried to run into that fire to save Lucky, but she knew that there was a part of her that had never changed, the part that loved Lucky. Changing that meant to stop loving him and that… That was so hard.

"Maybe things will change," AJ told her with a shrug. "Maybe… I don't know. Maybe he just needs more time to adjust, to remember everything that he lost while he was gone."

"It's been almost a year!" Elizabeth closed her eyes and took in a deep breath. Her lips snapped shut. She was being a bad person, she knew that. Lucky had been through a lot, and if he needed time, then he deserved to get that time. Problem was, Lucky's time didn't equate with what she had expected to happen, and it was hard for her to keep from trying to force it.

Everything seemed okay, at first. Lucky came home, and he tried to pick up his life where it left off. It was good for a while, but Elizbaeth felt him slipping away after a few weeks. She could tell that he was pretending, and figured out that he had been pretending all along. He did what was expected of him, acted the way people wanted him to act, but that could only go on for so long. He started getting angry, and then he got sullen, and after a while, the Lucky that Elizabeth knew was gone, and she had to admit that he may have never even been there. Helena Cassadine had finally gotten her ultimate revenge on Luke Spencer. She had taken away his son and turned him into someone else. In the process, she had also taken him away from Elizabeth.

"Why can't it be like with Emily?" Elizabeth asked. AJ rose a curious eyebrow and she sighed. "Whatever Helena did to him, Lucky still loves Emily. She's still like his little sister."

"Emily's everybody's little sister," AJ said with a shrug. "There's something about her that makes you want to take care of her."

"He used to be that way with me. He doesn't…" She sighed. "He remembers what happened, what brought us together, but it's like he remembers it like it happened to someone else. The connection we had isn't there, and I don't know if we'll ever get it back."

AJ looked at her, but he didn't say anything. Wonderful. He was probably thinking that she should stop whining. There were more important things than her relationship with Lucky, after all, and Elizabeth knew that. She knew that she should just be happy that Lucky was home, and she **was** happy. He was alive and he was back with his family, and that should have been the most important thing in the world. He wasn't with her, though. Elizabeth didn't even think that he felt anything for her, and that hurt.

Elizabeth knew that it was selfish. That was why she was in Jake's that night, drinking. She thought she had changed a lot since she had first come to Port Charles, but if she could be this selfish, then she hadn't changed that much. Elizabeth had come to Jake's in an attempt to call up the old Elizabeth, the bad girl that didn't care about anything and pretended not to care about anyone. If she could bring that Elizabeth back, then maybe she could forget the pain of losing Lucky. Because that's what had happened. She had lost him, and she was starting to think that she should stop trying to get him back.

"Lucky's not the only one that's changed, Elizabeth."

Lost in her thoughts, Elizabeth had forgotten about AJ. She rose an eyebrow and said, "Huh?"

"Lucky was gone a long time," AJ said. "You moved on with your life. Your goals in life changed, your desires. Were you even considering going to nursing school when you were with Lucky?"

Elizabeth sighed. "We were getting ready to go to New York," she said. "That next day… We were going to be starving artists. I would probably get a waitressing job and Lucky would get something so we could make ends meet, but our art was what was important. I was going to be a great painter, and Lucky was going to be on stage with his guitar."

AJ shrugged. "Dreams change," he said. "Can you really see that, now? Where you are in life, can you see just giving it up and running off to the city?"

Elizabeth groaned. She took a sip of the club soda in front of her and winced. The ice had already started to melt and the soda was going flat. If she was going to drink something without a fizz in it, AJ should have let her keep her whiskey. That was the kind of drink that went with her thoughts, because he was right. Elizabeth had set up a life, had forgotten all about running away. She still painted, but she didn't think about making a living of it. She just did it for fun, mostly, and she did it for the memories of when Lucky failed at posing for her in her studio. Now, the studio was gone. The New York dream was gone. Lucky was gone.

Elizabeth grunted. "What are you doing here, anyway? I'm pretty sure you shouldn't be in a bar."

"I was supposed to meet Jason, but he cancelled at the last minute. As in, I was pulling into the parking lot, last minute."

"So, you decided to come on in and have a drink. Yeah, that's smart." Elizabeth rolled her eyes. She had been a nice, non-sarcastic girl for so long now that she was surprised how easily the sarcastic tone came back to her voice.

"Actually," he said, "I saw your car in the parking lot when I was getting ready to pull back out, and thought I'd come in."

"Oh, really?"

AJ shrugged. "I could lie and say that I decided to come in and go on a bender, except if I tried to order a drink, you'd see the bartender refuse to sell to me." He grunted. "My brother, ladies and gentleman. Apparently, he sees keeping me sober as his way of thanking me for getting him out of the Quartermaine family."

Elizabeth didn't know exactly what to say. It was common knowledge, now, that AJ had been the one driving when his brother, Jason, was thrown from the convertible when it hit a tree. Just because it was common knowledge, though, didn't mean that it was something people talked about in front of AJ or Jason. Of course, Elizabeth was trying to give up being a nice, polite person, but it was really hard to change that. It just seemed cruel to talk about it, even if AJ was the one that had brought it up.

"Truth is," AJ said, "Em asked us all to keep an eye out for you. She's worried about you, and you know how Em gets when she's worried."

"She makes sure that you're okay," Elizabeth said with a sigh, "even if it means getting other people worried about you, too."

"Exactly." AJ picked up the glass of club soda that he hadn't been using to clean his shirt and drank about half of it down. He set down the glass and stood up from the bar stool. "How about we get out of here, huh? You don't have to go home, but you gotta get the hell out of here, and all that."

"It's not last call," Elizabeth told him.

"I think it is for us." AJ reached in his pocket, pulled out a few bills. He tossed the bills on the table, then put his hand out. "I'll walk you to your car."

"What's stopping me from just driving to another bar?"

"I don't know," he said. "Maybe the fact that you don't really want to do this?" He shrugged. "You're not this person anymore, Elizabeth, and believe me, drinking is not going to solve your problems."

Elizabeth took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. She looked at AJ's hand. She wasn't going to say that he was right. For all she knew, she was that person, again. Maybe losing Lucky for a second time had thrown her back to what she had been before Lucky picked her up from the snow. Maybe she just needed to give more alcohol a try, see if a little more liquor solved the problem.

Or maybe she just needed to go home and get some sleep. Tomorrow was another day and all that. Still, though, she didn't think that tomorrow was going to bring anything different. It was just another day for Lucky to reject her, unless… Unless she made tomorrow the day that she didn't give him that chance. If tomorrow was the day that she rejected fantasy…

Elizabeth sighed and took AJ's waiting hand. She stood up and looked up into his eyes. Wow, he was tall. "I'm not saying that you're right."

"Of course not," AJ said with a smirk.

"I'm just saying that I don't want to have to call Emily to come get me, and if I sit here drinking, that's what I'll have to do because I won't be able to afford the taxi home."

"Okay."

"Just saying," she said. Elizabeth let AJ lead her out of the bar, but she threw a glance over her shoulder, toward the bar, to the bottles lining the mirror behind the bar. She was finally old enough to sit in a bar and drink her problems away. Of course, someone would show up and stop her. Wasn't her world turning into one big life interrupted?

Elizabeth sighed and looked at the door as AJ opened it and gestured for her to go through the door. "Just saying," she mumbled as she went out into the cold winter night. Just saying.


	2. Chapter 2

"I hear my mother's voice when I'm going to sleep at night." Sam McCall sat on the bed with her legs pulled up, her chin resting on her knees. Her arms wrapped around her legs, holding them in place. She closed her eyes and turned her head, replacing the chin on her knees with her cheek. "I have all these memories, and they haunt me when I try to go to bed. That's why I don't sleep."

Sam was usually pretty good about getting away after the sex was done, so he wouldn't know that she rarely slept, so he wouldn't ask her questions. That's what she liked about Jason Morgan, the fact that he didn't ask a ton of questions. Maybe that was why she had told him the truth. His lack of questions meant that Sam didn't have to spend time coming up with fake answers. So, when he finally asked her why she was there, all that came out was the truth. Since then, however, she hadn't been able to stop telling him the truth. So, when he asked her why she laid there awake, staring at the ceiling instead of going to sleep, all she could do was tell him.

Sam was surprised that someone like Jason Morgan would even take an interest in her. When they first met over a game of pool and a few rounds of drinks at Jake's, she hadn't known anything about him. He was just another guy, and she was a girl that wanted to get laid. She didn't know that he was a mob enforcer, and when the notorious Sonny Corinthos left town with his new bride, Brenda Barrett, she definitely didn't know that this guy, this tall, hot, blond, was going to be the one that took over the reigns. Sam had been in it for some good times, and good times they were. She came out of it in some kind of pseudo relationship with the local mob boss.

She didn't really know what she and Jason had. She knew that they had fun in bed, and she knew that he took care of her when it was needed. She didn't live with him, but she spent a lot of time in his penthouse. She slept over now, unlike their days in Jake's when one of them would get dressed and leave without another word. She trusted him, and Sam hadn't trusted someone in… Well, she hadn't trusted anyone ever. There was her brother, Danny, but Sam didn't look at it as her trusting him as much as she had to be trustworthy to him. Danny depended on her. Danny was the reason she had come to Port Charles, tried to find her birth mother.

Sam wanted some place safe for his brother to go, a place where he didn't have to worry, a place where he wasn't hidden. When she found out that her mother was rich, part of a royal family, no less, Sam thought that she might help her. She thought that her mother would miss her enough, think about her enough, that she would do anything for Sam. All she wanted was a safe place to bring him, a real home.

But, Sam got to Port Charles, and her mother was happy. Her mother was not only happily married, but everyone expected them to have a little Jacks any time now. She was successful, and she had her family, and then there was her loving nephew and… Just thinking about it made Sam want to scream. She wasn't even thinking about her. She didn't even consider the daughter that she had given away.

"When I'm actually asleep," Sam said, "I see her standing there, yelling at me. I hear her telling Danny that he's not worth anything. And sometimes, in my dreams, I'm sneaking down in the basement. The house is on fire and I'm on my way to get Danny out. I look up, and there's this figure reaching out to me. I always thought it was my mom, ya know? Like, she was trying to help me. But, then, right before I wake up, my other mother comes and she slams the door."

Sam slid her feet along the bed until her legs were flat. She put her hands down at either of her sides, pressing into the mattress. "Do you have dreams like that?"

Jason's voice came out of the darkness. "I don't dream," he said. As Sam's eyes adjusted to the darkness, she could see him sitting across the room, slouching in a chair against the wall.

Sam often forgot about Jason's so-called handicap. She had never known Jason Quartermaine, so she didn't know that he was supposed to be someone else. And most of his handicaps, she saw as being blessings, or at least, as things that could be blessings. Sam would love to not only not be able to dream, but to also not even realize that she didn't dream. She wished things were as black and white for her as they were for Jason. Of course, to get to that point, she would need a serious brain injury and Sam wasn't too keen on that idea. She would just like some of the effects without the actual accident.

People said that Jason was brain damaged and treated him like he was something less, now, but as far as Sam saw, he was better than most of the people in Port Charles. Okay, so he was in the mob, and that wasn't exactly an upstanding position in society, and she had heard that he used to be mob enforcer for Sonny Corinthos and killing people was bad, but just as a person… Jason didn't judge. He didn't look down at other people because they did something that society had deemed bad. He let people make their own decisions, let them live their lives. He may have been a bad citizen, but he was a very good person.

"Why don't you just go talk to her?"

Things were so simple in Jason's mind. Just walk up to Alexis Davis-Jacks and say, _Hi, I'm the daughter you gave away. Glad to see me?_ Yeah, that wasn't going to work. Even if Alexis believed her, she wouldn't be too happy to find out that her daughter was someone who took every opportunity to make her unhappy. Sam was very good at covering things up, and while Alexis could never prove that Sam was the one that derailed all of her cases against the Corinthos-now-Morgan operation, she knew that it was Sam. She was pretty sure that Alexis figured that it was her connection to Jason that had Sam doing what she could do to destroy all of her cases against them. She had no idea that Sam was doing her best to punish her for giving her away. Considering that there were worse things she could have done when she came to town, Alexis should have been happy that Sam was only interfering in her cases. Sam could have come and tried to steal her husband.

"It's not that simple, anymore," Sam said as she threw her legs over the side of the bed. She pushed herself up and went to the window. She watched the snow fall as she said, "Maybe when I first got here, but now… Yeah, now it's not going to happen."

Sam would never know what would have happened if she'd given Alexis a chance when she first came to town. Her original plan had been to be honest. She just hadn't expected to see Alexis so happy. Some part of Sam thought that the moment she met Alexis, she would feel something and know, just somehow know deep down that this was her daughter. But, Alexis had barely given her a glance until she threw herself into her path. That meant she was in town for months before she could even get her own mother to look at her, and now when she looked at Sam, her eyes just held disappointment and frustration.

"It's too late," Sam said with a sigh. She put a hand against the cold glass. "Maybe I shouldn't have even come here. It's not like I'm really accomplishing anything."

"What do you want to accomplish?"

"I want to be able to sleep at night." Sam let her hand fall from the window and turned to look at Jason. "I want to know that Danny doesn't have to worry. I want to be able to take care of him without doing horrible things, and I've done some really bad things to take care of him."

"Have you killed anyone that didn't deserve it?"

Sam found it interesting how Jason put forth the question. It was a look into how his mind worked. Sometimes, she wondered if those were just his plain thoughts, or if it was how his brain worked things so he could live with what he did. How did that work with his brain damage? Jason had told her once that he couldn't lie, back when she begged him to keep her secret about Alexis. _"As long as nobody asks me, fine,"_ he had said. _"If they ask me a direct question, though, I have to tell the truth. I don't know how to lie. That part of my brain doesn't work."_ If he couldn't lie, that meant that he had to believe everything that he said, so he truly did believe in the code of ethics that he lived by. Some people deserved to die, and those, it was okay to kill. Those were people who had hurt you or someone you loved. To kill anyone else would be bad.

"No," Sam said, her voice soft, "but the rest of the world doesn't live by the same code that you do, Jason. The things I've done… Even just the things I've done since I came to Port Charles are enough for her to look at me with disgust. She already looks at me like that. Maybe if I'd told her when I first came here, but Jason, she was so… She wouldn't have cared."

"I can't imagine what would have happened if you had told her, and I can't tell you what's going to happen if you tell her now." Another one of his truths, a fact of his condition. Imagination could be cultivated, but it wasn't automatic. If there were logical details to sort through, Jason could make a prediction of what was going to happen, but he couldn't just imagine it. Lack of imagination and the ability to lie were so foreign to Sam, but to Jason Morgan, they were just a fact of life.

"All I can tell you is that it has to be better than this." Jason stood from his chair and Sam could only watch him as he walked to her. It wasn't that the sight of him took her breath away, though she did have to admit that she enjoyed looking at him. His chiseled torso was also very, very nice to touch. But no, it wasn't the sexual attraction that stopped her as much as the action itself. She'd never had anyone who came to her when she was in pain. Sam had always suffered through it alone. That Jason, who barely knew her, who killed people and ordered them killed as part of his career… That he would come to her with as much tenderness as he had within him made Sam stop and think that not every upstanding citizen was nearly as good a person as Jason Morgan.

Jason cupped her chin and tilted Sam's head up, making her look in his eyes. "You're a good person."

Sam turned her head to the side, or at least tried. Jason didn't let go of her chin, forced her back to him. "Not nearly good enough for my mother," Sam whispered.

"You don't know what Alexis will think until you give her the chance. And, if she doesn't want you, then that's her loss."

Sam looked at Jason and wondered why. Why did he care so much? What was it about her that made him give a damn? She would never ask him, because she was afraid of the answer. She didn't want to be anyone's pity case, and she was afraid that this was just some kind of charity. She preferred to believe that he saw something worthwhile in her, that for whatever reason, he felt something for Sam that made him actually want to help her. As long as she didn't ask him, she didn't have to know whatever truth might be hiding behind his cold, blue eyes.

"I wish that I had done things differently, sometimes," Sam softly told him. "I wish that I had just come to town and told her and then… If she wanted to get to know me, then I'd have stayed, and if she didn't, I'd have left, and that would be it. And sometimes, I wish that I'd never come here at all. And others…"

Sam let her words trail off as she looked up at Jason. She waited for him to urge her on, then remebered who she was thinking about. Jason Morgan didn't urge anyone toward anything. He just waited, until you were ready. Sam sighed and said, "I've never had anyone that gave a damn about me before, no one other than Danny. I just… Sometimes, I think I should go."

"And other times?"

"Other times, I think I'd miss you." Sam gave a short bark of a laugh. "Funny, huh? With how things started?" Jason just shrugged and Sam sighed. "I should probably be going, anyway. It's getting late, and you'll never get any sleep with me here."

"I don't sleep much, anyway," Jason told her. "I only need a few hours." He shrugged and his hand dropped from her face. "Go back to bed, Sam. Worry about Alexis in the morning."

Sam turned from Jason, looked out the window again. If she was going to skip town, she should probably do it soon. A storm was headed their way, and it was supposed to drop a lot of snow and ice on Port Charles.

She turned back to Jason and asked, "Why do you care so much?" She wanted to take it back the second it came out of her mouth. Hadn't she just decided that she didn't want to know why Jason helped her? But, it was something about the moment, looking out the window, ready to leave town… Depending on his answer, she figured she would be out of town the next day, the day after at the latest.

"You're lost," Jason told her. "I was lost once. If someone hadn't…" He shook his head and even in the dark, Sam could see the confusion in his eyes. He didn't know how to explain it, how to put his feelings into words. Was that why so many people thought of him as a robot, because when he was at a loss for words, he just went cold?

"You want to help me," Sam said softly.

Jason nodded. "Yeah," he said. "I don't want to tell you what to do, though. I hated all those people telling me what to do. I want you to make your own decisions. I just… If you really wanted to go, you'd already be gone. I just want you to know that I'll help you, if you need it. If you want it."

Sam looked up at him and wished someone like Jason had been in her life back when everything was just starting to go downhill. He had already offered to bring Danny to town, to set the two of them up with a place to live, and she had almost taken him up on the offer. Then, she could just forget about Alexis and this family that she had come to Port Charles to find. She couldn't do it, though. Pride comes before the fall, and Sam was looking down the hill, waiting for her pride to shove her down into the abyss below.

Sam reached up, flattened her palm against Jason's cheek. She smiled at him and said, "I'll go back to bed if you come with me."

Jason didn't say anything. He just took her by the wrist and led her back to the bed. Jason pulled back the covers and let Sam climb in before sliding in next to her. He pulled the covers over the both of them and laid down. Sam moved in and Jason's arm automatically moved so she could come in close. He put his arm around her and Sam leaned against his chest, closing her eyes.

"I should probably apologize," she said with a sigh.

"For what?"

"You were supposed to meet up with AJ tonight, and I…" She groaned. Sam had had another run-in with Alexis and instead of handling it like an adult, calming herself down, she had run to Jason, ready to skip town. Instead of telling her that she was being stupid, he had just cancelled his plans and spent the night listening to her rant. Sex came after the rant, and it was good sex, so that probably made things better, but still… Jason had plans, and Sam had ruined them.

"It's fine," Jason said. "It wasn't anything important. Just the weekly get-together."

Sam almost laughed. Jason and AJ weren't best friends, but they were brothers, and their sister, Emily, was determined to keep as much of her family together as humanly possible. Sam could understand that. Hadn't she come to town to join a family? She'd probably feel the same way if her family even knew that she existed. Jason wasn't a social person, but he did his weekly night out with his brother because his sister wanted him to do it. It was nice, though. Jason had family. Everyone had family, except Sam.

Her laugh died at the thought and she sighed. "Anyway, I'm just saying. I'm sorry."

"It's fine." She felt Jason's lips as he kissed her forehead. "Go to sleep. If you still want to leave town tomorrow, I'll help you, get you anything you need."

Sam waited for it, and when it didn't come, she said, "But?"

Jason sighed. "But, I hope that you won't want to go when you wake up."

Sam turned her head just enough to lay a soft, lingering kiss against Jason's bare chest, then turned her head back to lay with her cheek flat against him. He was such a good person, so much better than Sam. She knew that she didn't deserve him, but she didn't care. She had him, at least for the time being, and that had to be good enough. She had no one else. She had to have Jason.


	3. Chapter 3

Lucky Spencer thrust his hands into his hair and bunched it at the scalp. He didn't really like it, but it made him someone else. All the pictures that his mother had, that Elizabeth had, of him before his "death" had Lucky with short hair. He thought that if he grew it out, he would have something that was really in-your-face, something that said, _Look! I'm not him!_ It was all he could do to distance himself from those pictures, but… He had to admit. The hair was getting on his nerves. Standing outside, the wind blowing it in his face, it was really getting on his nerves.

Lucky felt bad about the argument he'd had the day before with Elizabeth. Well, not exactly the argument itself, but the yelling. She had to realize that he just wasn't the same person, and it wasn't getting through to her. Lucky knew that this was hard for her, finally having him back only to lose him again, and that's why he felt bad about yelling at her. She was just letting out her frustrations and he…

It was so hard being back that, sometimes, Lucky just wanted to pick up and leave. He wanted to start somewhere else, some place where the entire population didn't know him, or know of him. He couldn't leave, though. There were people there that he did care about. His mother was there, and his little sister. Emily was there, and she was like family.

Maybe that was why it was so hard for Lucky. With some people, it was like he was never gone. With most people, actually, it was like he had never been taken away. But with Elizabeth and his father… Helena had to have done something to him. He knew that things were done while he was in captivity, he just couldn't remember what those things were. Whatever she and Faison had done to him, Lucky was unable to feel the love for Elizabeth and his father the way he had before he came back. And that was exactly why Luke Spencer was off somewhere, trying to track down Helena Cassadine. Luke swore he would find out what happened to Lucky and find a way to fix it. Lucky just wished that he would leave it alone. He wished that they would all just leave him alone.

Lucky knew that he had a past with Elizabeth. He could remember everything they had been through together. The problem was that when he thought about it, he felt like he was remembering a scene from a movie. It was like someone else was playing his role in the life that had been Liz and Lucky. He tried so hard to make himself the star of those memories, and he wanted to use those memories to reconnect with Elizabeth, but he just… couldn't. He probably needed lots and lots of intense therapy.

Standing in front of the empty, frozen boxcar, Lucky tried to let those memories be his therapy. He thought that if he sat on his thoughts long enough, that if he tried hard enough, whatever block Helena and Faison had put on him would go away. As he stared at the boxcar, though, Lucky knew that wasn't going to happen. The love he had for Elizabeth was gone, and he didn't know if it would ever come back. He didn't know if he wanted it to come back, at all.

Elizabeth was better off without him. Lucky was almost positive of that. She had been living a real life before he came back. Emily had told him what it was like after he "died," but Elizabeth was doing so much better by the time Lucky was returned. She had moved on with her life. Now, with Lucky back, she was trying to recapture the past. Even if Lucky suddenly found his love again, he knew that nothing would be the way that it had been before. There would always be something between them, this time of distress, and any argument would bring it back, no matter how deep they buried it. Besides, how strong could that love have been if Helena could so easily erase it?

It hadn't been easy, though, had it? Lucky had been with Helena for a long time, and he could just barely remember a time when he spit in her face every time she came near. He remembered repeating the same words over and over again. _I love Elizabeth. I love my father._ But, at some point, he stopped saying it and now… Now, he figured he stopped saying it because it stopped being true. Helena had won, and then she dumped him back in town to revel in her victory.

Lucky pulled himself up into the empty boxcar and looked around. He had been gone a long time, but it looked like he had hardly been gone at all. Everything he had left inside when he moved into the apartment above the garage was still there. Elizabeth's murals were still on the wall. He could remember sitting on the dirty boxcar floor with his guitar, playing a soft song while she painted. The actions were easy to remember. It was how he had felt at the time was hard. That's why it felt like watching a movie, like someone else was the hero in his supposedly epic romance with Elizabeth. The pictures were there, but the emotions were just… gone.

"Hello?" The voice was soft, but close. "Lucky?"

Lucky stuck his head out the boxcar's opening and looked left, then right. At the right, he saw the blonde head coming his way. Maxie Jones walked his way hunched over. The way her head was shoved down in her coat, she reminded Lucky of a turtle peeking out of its shell.

"Maxie?" Lucky jumped down out of the boxcar, catching himself with his hands before he went down on all fours. Lucky stood up and brushed the snow from his gloves. "What are you doing here?"

"I was looking for you." As she reached him, Maxie's head came up about an inch out of her coat. "You should have just stayed in there and pulled me up, because it's really cold out here."

"It's cold in there, too, Maxie," he said. "Not like it has heat."

"I know, but at least in there, we can get away from the wind."

She had a point. But, he probably should have just taken her somewhere else. He may not have had the same feelings for Elizabeth as he had before the fire, but something still felt wrong about sharing anything in this boxcar with anyone other than Elizabeth. And, if they went somewhere else, Maxie's need to cover silence with babbling would be drowned out by the wind.

Lucky didn't feel like going anywhere just yet, though. He climbed back up into the boxcar, then put his hand out for Maxie. He gripped her hand tight, holding onto the side of the boxcar with his other hand, and pulled her up. "Now," he said, "what are you doing here?"

"I told you." Maxie stomped snow off of her boots and looked around the boxcar. "I was looking for you." She took a step forward, then looked around again. "I can't believe you actually lived here."

"It served its purpose," Lucky said with a shrug. Truth was, he had liked it in the boxcar. He had privacy, and he had space to come to terms with everything going on in his head. There was nothing like having your parents' epic romance ruined by a family enemy to make a guy dive into his thoughts. Lucky wasn't sure he would ever understand how his parents came out of the other side of what happened. How did two people go from being rapist and victim to most people's ideal of a happy couple? Lucky couldn't wrap his head around it, no matter how many times Laura tried to explain it to him. After a while, he could only stop asking questions and try not to think about it. That was easier to do before he was taken. Now, though… Whatever Helena and Faison had done to him, they made sure that it was never too far from his mind.

Lucky looked up, shaking his thoughts away. Maxie was at the far wall of the boxcar, her gloved fingers tracing lines on the mural. "Why were you looking for me, Maxie?"

His voice must have startled her, because Maxie jumped. Her arms fell to her sides for a moment, then came up to her stomach. She hugged herself against the cold. "I heard about the fight last night." She walked toward him. "I came to see if you were okay."

"How did you hear about it?" Maxie wasn't exactly best friends with anyone that would have told him. When he first heard her voice, he had actually thought it was Emily, coming to find him, but she had already talked to him last night.

"I took Georgie over to play with Lulu," she said, "and Nikolas was there, talking to your mom. They both stopped talking about it when I came in, because of course, no one wants to tell me anything, but I heard enough. You and Elizabeth are over, huh?"

Lucky sighed and said, "Elizabeth and I have been over since I first came back. It just took us a while to realize it."

"More like it took her time. You seem like you realized it a while ago."

Lucky groaned. He didn't really feel comfortable talking about this with Maxie. For one, she had a mouth on her, and Lucky didn't really want his business all around town. For two, he didn't feel like he knew Maxie well enough to be telling her this kind of stuff; or that he shouldn't be telling her this stuff because he didn't know her. But, having that distance between them almost made it easier to talk to Maxie. She didn't have stakes in any of it, so she wasn't going to try and make him think one way or another.

Lucky sighed and sat down on the cold floor of the boxcar. He shivered at the instant contact, then was surprised at how quickly he got used to it. "Ya know," he said, "I used to wonder how hard it had to have been for Jason Quartermaine after his accident. I thought, it must be hard to have all these people looking at you, expecting things from you, and not be able to give them what they want. I used to be so thankful that I never had to experience that."

"And now?"

"Now, I think I know how he felt." He sighed and pushed himself up from the floor. Whether it was actually the temperature or his thoughts, the floor had gotten extremely cold again. He moved to one side of the boxcar and leaned against the wall. "Except, for me, it's not with everybody. It's just two people."

"Elizabeth and your dad."

"Yeah." Lucky sighed. "I have these memories, but it's like they're not mine, or if they are mine, they don't feel like they're real. They feel like someone put them there to convince me that I was close to them at one time. I know they're mine, though. Some of the adventures I went on with my parents, nobody could make those up. And when I first came to town?"

Lucky laughed. This was one of those weird memories that didn't have anything wrong with them. Of course, that could have been because it was just the time itself, and not the stuff before or after. His dad wasn't there. "I came to town by myself," Lucky said, his laugh tapering off. "Mom and Dad sent me on ahead, to make sure it was safe. They sent me to my aunt Ruby, and she knew me the second she saw me, even though she'd never seen me before in her life. It's so weird," Lucky told her. "I can remember that one just fine, but toss performing at the Nurse's Ball at me? It's like it wasn't me on the stage. Like, in the memory, I'm an actor and I'm playing being Lucky Spencer, playing like I'm having fun with this guy that's supposed to be my dad, but I can't remember it actually being fun."

Maxie leaned on the wall next to him. "Wow," she said. "That must really suck."

Lucky couldn't help but laugh. Her comment was so… lacking, and at the same time, so true. When he tried to explain it to Nikolas, his brother had looked at him with pity. When he told it to Emily, she tried to convince him that it was just temporary. When he told Laura, she told him not to worry because his father was out there trying to find that she-devil, and he was going to bring back a cure, and they would have their little boy back. If he'd told his father, Lucky knew that Luke would have just told him, _Buck up, Cowboy. I'll have you fixed in no time._ Then he would have showed him the video of that performance, and Lucky still would have felt the same.

Maxie just put it out there, though. It did suck. It completely and totally sucked. Worse than his memories being gone, they were tainted, corrupted. And even worse than that… That bitch had finally won! No matter what she did to him, Helena was never going to take the hatred he had for her away. Okay, so he had accepted his brother, which took some work, Nikolas being a Cassadine and all, but with Nikolas as the only exception, battling Cassadines was what Spencers did best. There was no way that Helena was going to win the Cassadine-Spencer war. It just wasn't going to happen. Except that she was winning, because he was in a freezing boxcar with Maxie Jones instead of being at home with his mom and sister, or off finding Elizabeth.

Lucky sighed. "She won," he said. "I can't believe I'm actually saying this, but Helena Cassadine actually won. Sure, Dad may find her, and he'll probably kill her, but that won't change the fact that she won."

"Not necessarily," Maxie said.

"How do you figure that?"

"Well," Maxie said, "I'm figuring that her master plan wasn't just to make you hate your father and your girlfriend, because well, that would just be a really cruddy master plan, and all I've heard about Helena Cassadine says that she would come up with a better plan than that."

"Uh huh."

"And if that wasn't her plan," she said, "then I can only guess that her real plan was to ruin your life. She sent you back here with all kinds of messed up thoughts in your head thinking you'd kill yourself or drown in your own misery, or whatever. I don't know, exactly, but I figure she just wanted to destroy you. So, she only wins if she destroys you."

"Isn't that what she's done?"

"You're still in town, aren't you? You still have friends and family here. She may have succeeded in destroying your feelings for Elizabeth, but she didn't destroy you." Maxie shrugged. "If you survive, and you go on with your life, then she doesn't win. Then, you win."

"Maybe," Lucky said.

"No maybe about it," Maxie told him. "I'm right. I'm always right." Maxie pushed herself off the wall and hugged herself again. "Now, for more of me being right, we should go somewhere that has heat, because I'm definitely right in saying that it's too cold out to be hanging around here. Besides," she said, "there's supposed to be a major storm coming."

"Is that why you came out here to find me? To tell me about the storm?"

"No. I came to see if I had a chance in hell of even being on your radar." Maxie smiled at him, and Lucky couldn't help but laugh. A lot of people expected better from Maxie than she usually gave, but Lucky knew better. Her parents were Felicia and Frisco Jones. Her mother had been declared an Aztec princess and her father was a super spy. Asking her to be normal was like asking Lucky to be normal. Considering his parents had spent the majority of his childhood volleying back and forth between being super spies and occasional criminals, Lucky completely understood how Maxie turned out the way that she did.

Lucky pushed himself off of the wall and said, "Well? What do you think your chances are?"

"Well," she said, pursing her lips, "I can't be 100% sure, but I'm thinking that they might be pretty good." With a laugh, Lucky turned his back on her and started to the edge of the boxcar. "I'm a pretty good catch, ya know."

Lucky hopped down, then put his hands up. Maxie gripped his arms and jumped. Lucky eased her to the ground and said, "You're not even legal."

"I'll have you know, I'm perfectly legal in Canada."

If nothing else, Maxie had her sense of humor going for her. He had been pretty damn miserable when he came out to the boxcar, but after just a short while in Maxie's company, he was laughing more than he had in days. He'd been around her a little since he came back, but this was the first time he'd been with her for any stretch of time. Lucky couldn't deny that it was nice being with someone who didn't expect anything from him.

"In Canada," Lucky said with a chuckle. Lucky tightened his coat around him as the wind picked up. "Well, I can't say what your chances are for that, but I'm pretty sure both of our chances of freezing to death are pretty high if we don't get inside somewhere."

"That's why I said we should go somewhere that has heat." Maxie rolled her eyes and ducked her head back down into her coat. "Let's go to Kelly's. It's warm there."

Not exactly where Lucky had planned to go later, considering that everyone he knew ended up in Kelly's at one time or another, but in the face of Maxie's confidence and assertiveness, he couldn't say no. "Alright," Lucky said. "To Kelly's." And, for the first time since he got to town, Lucky did actually want to go somewhere with someone. Who knew? Maybe Maxie was right. Maybe Helena hadn't won just yet.

15


	4. Chapter 4

"Well?"

"She's fine, Em." AJ sighed and Emily slapped him on the arm. AJ winced and Emily gave a grunt of satisfaction. It's what he deserved for being so flippant about the whole thing. He acted like it was no big deal, but it was a very, very big deal. Elizabeth and Lucky were… Well, they were supposed to be Luke and Laura all over again, a crazy awesome couple that had adventures, and when you said their names together, people just nodded and automatically knew that you were referring to awesome.

But… there was no more Liz and Lucky. How could there be no more Liz and Lucky?

"What was that for?" AJ asked as he rubbed his arm.

"For being so… so… calm! She's not fine, AJ," Emily said. "There's no way that she's fine."

AJ sighed and said, "Okay, so maybe she's not fine in the normal sense, but she's not dead and she's not completely smashed. As far as I'm concerned, Elizabeth is—"

"Liz," Emily corrected him, jumping in before he could finish talking. AJ rose an eyebrow and Emily said, "Nikolas calls her Elizabeth, because Nikolas is a prince, and he's a Cassadine, and he's still so formal. I call her Liz. Lucky calls her…" Emily sighed. "Lucky used to call her Liz. Or, sometimes Lizzie. I should have known something was wrong when he started calling her Elizabeth all the time. I should have known when they went from being Liz and Lucky to Elizabeth and Lucky. I should have known long before now that it was getting really wrong with them."

"Em? Sweetie, you're babbling."

"I know that!" Emily knew she was acting like a child. Her arms were folded over her stomach. She was pouting. She had even just stomped. If she wanted people to take her seriously, she had to be more adult. She had to stop having tantrums, because then they just patted her on the head and dismissed her.

She had gotten really good at it for a while. Emily had to be the mature one when the rest of her family wanted to act like little babies. They fought all the time, and they didn't see what they had. They didn't understand that they had their family, that they should have been glad to have each other alive. Ned and Grandfather searched for faults so they could pounce on someone and bring them down, but they should have been bringing them up. So, when she faced off with Ned or Grandfather, she made sure that she was firm and there wasn't a hint of childishness in her. That was the only way to make them take her seriously.

But, with AJ, Emily couldn't always keep the childishness back. He was her big brother. Sure, she had stood up for him and had to be the adult when he started fighting with Ned or Grandfather, but she knew that if she was the one that needed someone to stand up for her, AJ would do it. Jason would do it, too, but Jason… There was a gap she knew she'd never be able to cross with him. Jason loved her and she was the only Quartermaine other than AJ that he would willingly have anything to do with, but there was still a distance with them sometimes. She couldn't have her childish moments with Jason. She had could have her cute moments and he would give in, but if she started whining, she knew that he would just go away until she stopped. Jason didn't remember living with the Quartermaines, so he didn't remember how important it was to be able to have those childish moments because Quartermaine children had to grow up so soon. AJ remembered, though, he knew, and so when Emily was feeling childish, she knew that AJ would let her have that time.

And, well, Emily was feeling childish. Her dreams were shattered! Liz and Lucky were the greatest thing ever, and after spending years listening to Monica threaten to throw the entire family, Alan included, out of _her_ house, Emily looked to Liz and Lucky as a loving forever couple. Liz would never threaten to throw Lucky out. They wouldn't yell and each other and fight and… Emily had even overheard Bobbie and Luke talking about the days when Alan and Monica used to try to kill each other on a regular basis. Liz and Lucky would never do that!

Emily felt like her family was being torn apart all over again, and hadn't that happened enough? First, she lost her mom, then she lost Jason, and then Lucky… Now, she was losing Lucky all over again, and… No, she wasn't losing Lucky. She was losing Liz and Lucky, her perfect ideal of a couple in love, and that was just as hard as losing Lucky. So yeah, she was going to be childish, because she had done her best to be strong when her mom died. She had been strong when Jason got hurt. She had been strong when Lucky "died." As far as Emily was concerned, it was her turn to freak out.

Emily took in a deep breath and tried to calm herself down. Yeah, it was her turn to freak out, but at the same time, no one would listen to her if she freaked out too much. AJ would start to patronize her, maybe even accuse her of being on drugs, again, which she totally wasn't, but… She didn't even want to go there. She had to be mostly calm, and keep the freaking out to a minimum.

"I'm just worried about her," Emily said, forcing her voice to a normal, steady level. "I don't want her to go out and get herself hurt or anything. You said when you found her last night, she was drinking."

"And, I stopped her from drinking any more."

"But, what if you hadn't been there? What if she'd kept drinking and then gotten in the car and…" Emily stopped, realizing what she was saying and who she was saying it to. Her hands went up quick, covering her mouth. She gave a muffled, "AJ, I'm so sorry…"

AJ just shook his head. "Ya know, Em, if you keep doing that any time something even remotely related to the accident comes up, it'll never go away, and you'll never stop feeling bad about saying something. I know what I did, and we're all moving past it."

Emily's hands lowered slowly to her sides. "I know, I know, I just… I feel like if we don't talk about it, then… I don't know. It just feels like something we're not supposed to talk about."

"That's because Ned made it something we shouldn't talk about. But, I'm not Ned, and so we can talk about it if you need to talk about it."

"Do you need to talk about it?"

AJ didn't even think about it. He shook his head and said, "No. I've talked about it to Jason, and that's the person that matters. We're fine with it. He forgave me a long time ago, and that's helping me forgive myself. So, see? No reason to apologize, because you're the reason that Jason and I are even on decent terms."

"Okay," she said, the word slow and elongated, but she wasn't so sure. It all just seemed… weird. Maybe she had just expected it all to be harder. Most of AJ's problems had been because of his feelings of inadequacy within the family, feeling that he was always letting someone down. When it came to the accident, Emily expected that all to be there. But, Jason had forgiven him, and because she hounded them enough, they were actually sort of friends, as close to being real brothers as she was going to get out of them. Emily was just always so surprised that it had happened so quickly, that she hadn't had to fight harder for it.

"And, by the way," AJ said, "Elizabeth…" He stopped as Emily started to scowl and corrected himself. "Liz," he said, "wasn't going to drive drunk. She would have called you to pick her up."

"That's good, at least." Emily sighed. "I wonder if I could get Jason to let the bartender at Jake's know not to serve her."

"Then, she would go to another bar if she really wanted a drink."

"You don't go to another bar."

"Because Jason went one step further and told every bartender in town not to serve to me."

Emily pursed her lips and thought about it. That was a pretty good idea. Jason had already done it once, he could do it again. She probably should have felt bad about interfering in AJ's life the way she had, especially since his voice held such an accusatory tone, but she couldn't feel bad about keeping him safe and sober. The Quartermaines just had a way of driving a person to drink, and she didn't want AJ to have outlets. He couldn't even buy liquor in the stores in town, thanks to Jason, and if he wanted a drink that bad, he'd have to go all the way out of town.

She probably would have felt bad if she thought AJ was really upset about it. He didn't want to drink. He wanted to stay sober. He just didn't want to have to admit that he couldn't do it on his own, that he needed that kind of extreme help, so he would never thank her or Jason for it. But, she knew he was better off with the interference, and she knew he appreciated it on some level. He was just mad that he couldn't do it himself.

"Em, you can't possibly be thinking…"

"It worked for you."

"I was also a lot worse than Liz…" He shook his head. "You know, it feels really weird calling her that, because I don't know her as intimately as you do. How about you just let me call her Elizabeth until I get to know her better."

Emily twisted her mouth until it started to make her nose itch. Letting AJ call her Elizabeth felt like she was giving in, like she was saying okay that Liz was changing into someone else, but… Well, maybe she could get past that by diverting the conversation.

"What do you mean, get to know her better?"

AJ's eyes narrowed for just a few seconds, but long enough for Emily to know that he was suspicious of her long before he actually said, "What are you up to?"

"I'm not up to anything," she told him. "I'm just figuring that since Liz doesn't seem comfortable talking to me or Nikolas about how things are with Lucky, maybe she needs a friend, and you were already a friend to her last night, so…"

"Uh huh." AJ shook his head. "I'm not about to play rebound for your friend."

"I didn't say anything about being a rebound. Besides, it seems like Lucky's already been his own rebound, except a rebound is supposed to make you feel better and Lucky just made her feel worse." Emily sighed and crossed her arms. "I don't understand why this has to be so hard and complicated."

"Because we're people, Em," AJ told her. "We're people with emotions and our hearts break. That's never going to be easy, Em. It's always going to be hard."

"I know, I just…" She sighed. "I had this fantasy in my head and it didn't just involve Liz and Lucky."

AJ smirked. "Do tell." He moved from the chair to the sofa. He patted the seat beside him. "This sounds interesting."

Fidgeting, Emily turned around and made sure the door was closed. The last thing she needed was for one of her parents or, God forbid, Grandfather or Ned, to come busting into the sitting room while she talked about something she wasn't ready to have them butt their noses into just yet. The door was still safely closed, and she hoped that, knowing she and AJ were in there talking, Reginald would give her some kind of heads up if someone was coming.

Satisfied that, for the moment, they were alone, Emily sat down beside AJ. "Nikolas," she said. Emily felt her eyes widen. There was no way that she was going to be able to hide just how excited the thought made her from AJ. He was already grinning at the sight of her eyes. He would only grin wider if he knew that her heart was beating so hard it felt like it would burst out of her chest.

"I'd know that look anywhere," AJ said, grinning. "The spark in your eyes… What does Nikolas have to say about the way you say his name?"

"Nikolas…" Emily sighed. She thought about when she kissed him in the park and ran away. Nikolas had told her that it wasn't right, that she was like his sister, but… Now, she didn't think so. She thought that, since that kiss, he had been looking at her differently, like he was wondering if there really was more there. She had been ready to never see him again, but Nikolas had been the one to seek her out after that, the one to tell her that she shouldn't apologize and that she didn't need to feel nervous around him.

"I don't know," Emily told AJ. "I mean, I think he's considering it." She wasn't going to tell AJ that she had kissed Nikolas and run like a fool, but she didn't have to get into that story with him. She didn't have to tell him why he was considering it.

"I think he's afraid," Emily said. "With what's going on between Liz and Lucky… I don't know," she said. "I think he sees them, the way they can't even look at each other and he's afraid that if something happened, we would lose our friendship. But, I can see it in his eyes, ya know? He's thinking about it. He's thinking and thinking's good, right?"

AJ nodded. "Thinking means you won't get into something that will destroy your friendship. It's good that he's thinking." But AJ was smiling, even though he was trying to be serious, which meant to Emily that he thought this was a good thing, that she should go for it. Of course, she could have been projecting. She was probably projecting. AJ probably just thought that it was cute. She'd probably think it was cute if it was happening to someone else. But, since it was happening to her, Emily just felt nervous and sometimes kind of pathetic.

"I wish everything would be the way it was, ya know?" Emily sighed. "I know it's not going to be like that, though, but if Nikolas and I… I love him, AJ, I really love him, and I think he loves me. He's just afraid to see what we could be together."

"Give it time, Em," AJ told her. "If it's meant to be, it'll be."

"Now, you're spouting clichés at me," Emily said with a sigh.

"Because sometimes, the clichés are true." AJ reached out and grabbed her hands. He squeezed tightly and said, "I love you, Em, and I'll do anything I can to help you, you know that. But with this, there really isn't that much I can do."

"I know," she said with a sigh. "You listened, though, and you didn't tell me how awful the Cassadines are, so that's plenty."

AJ chuckled. "With my record, I can't really talk too bad about anybody." AJ gave her hand one more squeeze, then pulled back. The pager on AJ's hip buzzed and he groaned as he looked down and saw the number. He looked up at Emily and said, "Sorry, Em, it's Jax."

"You're usually more excited about going to work," Emily said, pouting. AJ looked bothered and she hated to see him like that. She didn't just worry that he was going to go back to drinking or anything. She just hated to see him anything lesst han happy.

"Yeah," he said with a grunt. AJ pushed himself up off the sofa and said, "That was before most of my days became listening to Jax complain that his life is verging on hell ever since Jason's girlfriend developed some kind of vendetta against his wife."

Emily winced. "Still?" She sighed. "Have you asked Jason about it?"

"Yeah, and all he says is that it's between Sam and Alexis." AJ shrugged. "Whatever it is, I hope it's settled soon so I can get back to doing real work."

"I hope so, too, because until recently, you've been really happy working for Jax." Emily looked up at AJ and smiled. "I like it when you're happy."

"And I like it when you're happy," he told her. AJ bent over and pressed a kiss agaisnt Emily's cheek. "And I'm absolutely sure that you're going to get your happiness."

"How can you be so sure?" Emily asked.

AJ spoke as though it was completely obvious, like the question had no merit at all, and like he was surprised she had even asked it. "Because you're you, Em."

"And what does that mean?"

"It means," he said, "that I've never met another person who deserved happiness as much as you. Whether you believe it or not, you're the best person I know, Em. You're going to get everything you deserve and more, and to do it, all you have to be is yourself."

"So that means I'll get Nikolas?"

AJ laughed as he bent down to pick up his suit jacket off the back of the chair. "I said you'll get what you deserve, Em, not what you want."

"Well, I do deserve him." She folded her arms and didn't even care that she was pouting. "I do."

"Then, keep the faith, babe. You'll get him."


	5. Chapter 5

"The snow isn't letting up." Sam stared out the window and groaned. They were heading back to Port Charles. Jason got lucky. The flight's delay had been declared just as he was finding out that she was actually going to leave town. The flight was cancelled just as he was coming into the airport and Sam was leaving, trying to decide if she could make it out of town by driving before the storm really hit hard. Now, she was in the car, and he was driving her back to Harborview Towers.

He was quiet. Sam knew that Jason hadn't expected her to really leave, and she almost hadn't. She had woken up, ready to stay in Port Charles and just give up on the whole Alexis thing. Sam knew plenty of ways to get money for Danny, and she woul djust have to fall back on those. She couldn't keep this thing up anymore and it was just time to move on. She'd miss Jason, but Port Charles was just too hard.

She told him all of that at the airport, and he just stared at her. He didn't say a word. He just looked at her with his eyes that were usually so cold but now… Now they were warm and they were asking her not to go. Sam didn't really understand it. She had nothing to offer Jason. Sure, she'd done some things to mess up cases against him and those in his organization, but it wasn't like he needed her to do that. There were plenty of people who could mess up a case, and if they couldn't do it, he had some damn good attorneys.

"Where are we going, Jason?"

"Back to town."

"You said if I decided to go, that you would help me."

"That was before you lied to me."

Sam tried to look at Jason, but couldn't force herself to look at his face. Instead, she focused on his hands. He clutched the steering wheel hard, but not so hard that his hands lost all of their color. He flexed his fingers around the wheel, and when his fingers lasted, the grip was a bit tighter.

She wasn't going to leave, not when she got up that morning. Sam didn't even know why she had decided to skip town. She hadn't had a run in with Alexis. She hadn't actually spoken to anyone that morning. She was just standing outside, watching the snow come down harder and harder, and then… She just felt like it was time to go. She watched the snow come down in a ceaseless torrent and decided that this thing, her problems in Port Charles, they were never going to end. She didn't have the strength to tell Alexis the truth, but she didn't have it in her to keep this one-sided vendetta going, either. It was better to just get gone and let that be the end of things.

"You knew I'd come after you, Sam." She looked up, but Jason wasn't looking at her. He kept his eyes on the road. Visibility was getting worse by the minute, and he was driving a lot slower than he would have normally driven. "You wouldn't have left me a note if you really wanted to leave."

"I wanted to say goodbye."

"You could have called me after you were gone," he said. " You could have called from the plane, or when you got to where ever you were going. You wanted me to stop you from leaving."

Maybe he had a point. When she was writing the note, she hadn't consciously thought that this would make him come and get her. She just knew that she couldn't leave him without saying something, not after everything that he had done for her. Jason was a good guy, and he deserved more than that. He deserved more than Sam, as far as she was concerned, but he'd never agree with her.

"You should have just let me go," Sam said. "It would be easier for everyone."

"It would just be easier for you," Jason told her. "Do you really think that I wouldn't have gone looking for you if I hadn't caught you at the airport?"

"I'm not worth that much, Jason," Sam told him. She looked out the window and couldn't see much past the falling snow. If it weren't for the snow, she'd have already been out of town. She would have been on her way to California, and after she got there… Well, Sam didn't really know where she was going. She just knew that she had to get far away from Port Charles.

She had considered Alaska. That was where people went who wanted to stay in the States, but not actually be a part of the lower forty-eight. There were places in Alaska that could only be accessed by plane, places people went to hide. No one asked questions in those places. She could find a way to get Danny there with her and then just live a quiet life. No one would even think to look for her there. Jason would probably figure she went to Mexico or Europe, and he would have spent his time, until he got bored, looking for her in the wrong place. Yeah, Alaska would have been a nice place to go.

"You obviously have no idea what you're worth."

Sam didn't look at his face. Instead, she focused on Jason's hands. His fingers were wrapped tight around the steering wheel, so tight that the blood around his knuckles drained and left the skin so very white. Sam had seen those hands do a lot of things. She had seen them hold a gun, with the index finger just outside of the trigger guard. Those hands had held her, and she had watched him drag a hand up and down her arm. She had looked down to see the edge of his hand laying flat against her stomach and watched as his fingers splayed open and closed against her skin. She looked at his hands, because looking at his face was just too hard.

"You told me if I wanted to go that you would help me."

They were driving so slowly that it was like they were hardly moving, but still, his hands stayed tight on the wheel. "You didn't say that you were going to run away. I'm not letting you just run away."

"It's easier to go if I just run," Sam said. She looked out the side window. The snow had been falling steady when she got to the airport, but the wind hadn't kicked in yet. Now, the wind was blowing the snow in every direction. The world outside was white and cold. The time couldn't have been too far past noon, but the gray clouds made it look more like it was four or five at night.

"If you have to make it easier," Jason told her, "then you don't want to run. You wanted me to find you. You wanted me to come for you."

"No, I didn't."

"Really? Then, that's why you left on a day when you knew the flights would probably be cancelled. And that's why you left me a note. It wasn't so I would come and get you. It was so you could leave with no trouble. Makes perfect sense."

Sam sighed. She hadn't purposely done any of that. As far as she knew, she wanted to get as far away from Port Charles as possible. But, leaving without letting Jason know seemed wrong. She could have called him, but she just figured he would try to talk her out of it. Despite what he'd said about helping her if she really wanted to go, she didn't want to take the chance. The note seemed safer. She figured that by the time that he got it, she would already have been out of town.

Except, Sam knew that storm was coming in, and that it was coming in hard and fast. She knew the flights would probably be canceled, and if not canceled, then at least delayed. So, maybe she did, subconsciously, want him to stop her. She couldn't be sure. The only thing she knew, though, was that she had not consciously left as a ploy to get Jason to follow her. She really had intended to leave.

"Would you have really helped me leave?" Sam asked him. She didn't turn to him. Sam kept staring out the window, and as she spoke, her breath fogged the glass. "If I'd said, Jason, I want to get out of town, I want to leave, would you have really helped me?"

"Yes." He answered so quickly that, if it were anyone else, Sam would have thought they were lying. But, this was Jason Morgan, though, and Jason Morgan didn't lie. He couldn't lie.

"You wouldn't have tried to talk me out of it."

"If it's what you really wanted to do and you had no regrets about it, I would have helped you. But, you have regrets, Sam."

"How do you know that?"

"Because you left me a note instead of just calling me whenever you got to wherever you were going." Jason sighed and chanced a glance in her direction. Just a quick one, but long enough for Sam to feel the disappointment in his eyes. "Do you know why I don't care that I can't lie?"

Sam turned his way, finally, and Jason was staring out the window. "What?"

"I can't lie to others, but more importantly, I can't lie to myself."

"You're saying that I'm lying to myself."

"I'm saying that what's coming out of your mouth doesn't gel with what you've done. I'm saying…" Jason paused and leaned forward, peering out the window. Sam leaned forward to look, too, and she could barely see past the front end of the car.

Sam didn't say anything as Jason manuevered the car around a corner. He drove slowly and silently. He seemed to know what he was doing, so Sam didn't ask any questions. She just looked out the window and wished she had decided to leave the day before. And then she wondered if, had she actually left the day before, Jason would have come looking for her. If she'd made it out of Port Charles before he could catch her, would he go to any great lengths to find her and bring her back? Probably not. Sam knew she wasn't important enough for that. Since she'd waited, he had only had to come to the airport to get her. She couldn't bring herself to believe that he'd have gone any further.

Jason pulled over and slowed the car to a stop. Sam watched him as he opened the door and half-stepped out, one side of his body still inside. Snow blew into the car around his body. Sam hugged herself and huddled down. She turned away from the blowing snow and only turned back when the cold air no longer hit her. Jason was outside of the car now, and the door was closed.

She should have left yesterday, before the snow blew in. She had almost done it, too. Sam's bags had been packed for more than two days, but she kept talking herself out of it. It figured that when she finally got the balls to leave town, it would be the day where weather stopped her. If the flight hadn't been cancelled, she would have been able to get out of town before Jason even knew she was gone.

The door opened and Jason got back in the car, covered in snow. He brushed snow out of his hair and down the front of his black leather jacket. "There's no way we're getting back to Harborview," he said with a grunt.

"What?"

"This car isn't built for this weather, and even if I could, it's almost a complete whiteout. "

"So… we go back to the airport, right?"

"No." Well, she'd tried. At the airport, Sam could have just waited for him to fall asleep. He didn't sleep much, but Jason did get a few hours here and there. She could give him the slip and… and he'd probably already thought of that, which was why they weren't going back to the airport.

"Then, where are we going to go?"

Jason was quiet, not because he didn't know, but because he did. He couldn't lie, and since she had asked him a direct question, all he could do was not answer. Since he wasn't saying anything, she figured he must have had an idea and that he knew she wouldn't like it.

"Jason…"

"We're close to somewhere we could go, but you're not going to like it."

"Jason, come on."

He sighed and let his head fall back to hit the headrest. He rolled his head to the side and said, "You're really not going to like it."

"What is it?"

He sighed again and said, "Alexis's house isn't too far from here."

Sam stared at him for at least a full minute, the silence in the car growing heavy, before she finally started shaking her head. "No. No, Jason, no, we can just stay in the car. Isn't that what they say to do if you're stranded? The car's working, so we have heat. We can just stay in the car."

"We don't have food or water, and this storm is supposed to keep going for the next day, maybe day and a half. We can't survive in the car that long, Sam."

"But…" Sam balled her fists and screamed in frustration. She pounded her fists twice on the dashboard, then let her hands drop into her lap. Those two punches seemed to take all the frustration out of her and left only defeat. "She won't even let us in, Jason. She'll let us freeze to death in the snow."

"I know that you and Alexis have your problems, Sam, but she wouldn't just let us freeze to death out here."

"So, what? She lets us in and… What? I'll tell you what. Alexis and I get into some kind of argument, and then she throws us out into the cold and we're back where we're started." Sam shook her head. "No, Jason, no. We just… we wait it out in the car, or we find some place else to go. I'm not going to Alexis's house."

"We don't really have another choice, Sam." Jason fastened his seatbelt and started the car forward, pulling away from the curb and once again into the street. They were moving even slower now than they had been before. Jason had only stopped the car for a few minutes, but those few minutes were enough to start burying the car in snow.

"This is a very bad idea," Sam said. She looked out the window and could barely see past the hood of the car. "She's not going to help us."

"Alexis doesn't like us, Sam, but that doesn't mean she's a horrible person. Besides, her husband is my brother's boss. That has to count for something. If we're lucky, AJ might even be there, because of work or something."

"Doubtful," Sam said, rolling her eyes. "Jax probably just waited until AJ was already at the office, and then called in and said he was going to stay home where it was nice and toasty." And, yes, Sam was well aware of the fact that she was making Jax out to be worse than he probably was. She didn't know Jasper Jacks beyond what she'd been told and what she found in her research since coming to town and laying eyes on her mother's husband. As far as Sam could tell, Jax was a decent enough guy, and if he wasn't going to work, then he wouldn't have made AJ try to get there either. She would just rather not think of anyone associated with her mother as being a good person.

"We don't really have a choice, Sam. It's Jax and Alexis, or we sit in the car."

"But…"

"We're not equipped to hike it, Sam. Neither one of us is dressed for this kind of weather, and we wouldn't make it very far. We either go to Alexis's house, or we sit it out in the car. Think about it, Sam. Which one gives us a better chance for survival?"

He was right. Sam hated it, but Jason was right. There was no telling how long this storm would go on, and sitting in the car, engine and heat running, the gas wouldn't last forever. They needed to get somewhere safe. The only place safe was Alexis's house. Sam put the tip of her left thumb in the side of her mouth and bit down on the nail. Her head bobbed side to side as she thought about it. This had to be the most screwed up thing to happen since she came to this miserable town.

"So, we either freeze to death, or we let Alexis rescue us."

"Pretty much."

Sam let out a heavy breath as her body slid down in the seat. She closed her eyes and said, "Fine." Sam put her hands to her face, pushing out the world for just a few seconds. She kept her hands there until she had even the smallest idea of how to get out of the car, because everything was telling her, snow or not, to just stay in the car.

When she was pretty sure she could talk without freaking out, Sam dropped her hands and said, "We'll go to Alexis. But, if she turns us away like I know she will, you owe me, Jason. For making me ask Alexis for anything, you owe me."

Jason smirked as he pulled the car back into the street. "Wouldn't this actually make us even?"

"Oh no," Sam said. "Me pushing the car would make us even. Me going to the Quartermaines on your behalf or something, that would make use even, because you and your family don't hate each other. This?" Sam shook her head. "This is so above and beyond anything I could ever ask you to do. So no, double no, and hell no, too. This in no way makes us even."


	6. Chapter 6

She should have called Emily, but she didn't really want Em driving in that weather. It was dangerous, and Em was safer wherever she was. Elizabeth had to admit that she didn't really know where Em was weathering the storm. She hadn't talked to her in a couple of days, and she wasn't really looking forward to talking to her. Em was still holding on to something that was over, and Elizbeth couldn't really take looking into Em's sad eyes.

Em would have come to get her, though. Despite the warnings to stay inside and go nowhere necessary. Emily would deem this necessary and she wouldn't even make it to Elizabeth. She would end up in a ditch somewhere, and that would be all Elizabeth's fault. Em would end up in an accident because she'd be so busy giving her a lecture, or trying to tell Elizabeth that she could tell her the truth, even though she really would be telling the truth. She hadn't had anything to drink.

Not that she hadn't given it a shot, though. Elizabeth had sidled up to the bar and ordered a double whiskey, neat. She started to take a sip, but she couldn't actually make herself do it. Back in the day, she'd have knocked it back, no problem. Hell, before her run-in with AJ, she'd have knocked it back faster than the bartender could pour it. But, when she stared down in the glass, she kept hearing AJ tell her that she didn't need it, that she wasn't doing herself any favors.

Damn him and his sensible recovering alcholic… sense. Because Elizabeth knew she wasn't helping herself by trying to go back to being a person that was long gone. She was only hurting herself, because Lucky sure didn't care if she went out in a blizzard and drank herself under the table. He was off hanging out with Maxie Jones, obviously moving on.

Oh, yeah, she knew. Emily couldn't keep a secret to save her life. Besides, it wasn't like Lucky told her it was a secret or anything. Of course, it wasn't like Lucky had actually told her, either. Emily had seen them laughing at Kelly's that morning, which of course, sent Elizabeth straight to the bar way too early in the morning. But, in the morning, it was quiet. Just the real drunks were up and at 'em that early, especially with a blizzard whirling its way into town. If Lucky could go have coffee and whatever with Maxie Jones at Kelly's, then Elizabeth could have drinks with, well, with herself.

Now, though, she was realizing that she should have listened to Gram when she told her not to leave the house that day. Classes were cancelled at PCU, and she had no good reason to go out in that kind of weather. But, then again, when did Dizzy Lizzy ever listen to Gram? Except, she was supposed to be doing the right thing. And why was she doing the right thing? Because AJ Quartermaine, of all people, told her that she should.

And, since when did she start listening to Quartermaines, especially AJ? Other than a passing hello or goodbye when she went to the Quartermaine mansion to see Emily, Elizabeth had hardly ever spoken to him. He drives her drunk behind home one night and suddenly, she's listening to his words of wisdom and calling him for a ride. Yeah, like his sports car could even make it out in this mess. But, still…

Elizabeth started to ask the bartender if she could use the phone when the door to Jake's opened and a gust of wind came in from the suddenly opened door. And, of course, her knight in snowy armor came in, brushing snow out of his blond hair. AJ stomped his feet at the door, and Elizabeth laughed. AJ looked up at her and she laughed harder.

"Yeah," he said, "thanks. I come here to rescue you from the blizzard, and you laugh at me."

"I'm sorry," she said, covering her mouth. Elizabeth bit her bottom lip until the laughter managed to die down. She had to focus on her breathing, because otherwise, the laughs were just going to turn into hiccups, and that was just going to make her start laughing again.

When she was finally sure that she was neither going to laugh nor hiccup, Elizabeth dropped her hands and said, "It's just…" She shook her head. "Your shoes. Only a Quartermaine would go out in a blizzard wearing leather dress shoes. Boots, AJ, boots. They're a wonderful thing."

"Yeah, well, I pissed off Reginald and he hid my boots." AJ stood up straight and said, "Besides, it's not like you can talk."

Elizabeth looked down at her feet. "What? I'm wearing boots."

"I don't think boots with heels are called for in this kind of weather. A little more traction, maybe?"

She shrugged. "I wasn't really planning to do all that much walking," she said. "I was really going to just wait out it out here. They still cover my pants, though, so I don't have wet legs."

"Yeah, yeah." AJ sighed. "Come on," he said, "before it gets much worse."

Elizabeth slid off of the barstool and her chunky heels landed with a thunk against the floor. She took her coat from the back of her chair and quickly thrust her arms into her coat. AJ didn't seem to be in a good mood and Elizabeth was becoming even more worried that she shouldn't have called him. Sure, he said call if she needed anything, but he probably meant to call him before she went to the bar, not after she'd been there an hour and her car was already buried in the parking lot. Calling him out in the middle of a blizzard because she decided to get drunk—

"I'm sorry." Elizabeth crossed the floor and stopped a few steps away from him. She looked up, all the way up, and met his blue eyes. "I shouldn't have called you."

"You shouldn't have gone out in the first place. You should have stayed home like a normal person."

"You didn't stay home," she told him.

"I went to work. I just got lucky. Jax realized that either of us getting anything done was not going to happen with that storm going crazy out there and we both decided to go home."

"Yeah, well…" She shrugged and lowered her head, looking to the floor. She looked at the wet bottoms of AJ's slacks and his wet dress shoes as she said, "You came out here to get me, and that was pretty dumb."

"Like I would leave you here?" He snorted a laugh. "Not likely. You'd either have called a taxi that might have gotten you home, or you'd have drank so much that you thought you could walk home and ended up frozen on the street."

"Thanks for the boost of confidence there, AJ."

"Just callin' 'em like I see 'em."

She looked up at him and sighed. AJ was… He was hot, that was for sure, and any girl that couldn't see that had to have blinders on. He was also pretty sweet. He was snarky as hell and his sarcasm had a bite to it, but he was still sweet. He really didn't have to come out there and get her. He could have just told her to batten down the hatches. That's what she gets for going to a bar at the onset of a rapidly descending blizzard. He came out to get her, though, and for that, she should give him a break.

"It wasn't as bad as this when I left, you know," Elizabeth told him. "I mean, it was snowing, but it looked like maybe it would pass us by, ya know? By the time I was one drink in, it had gone crazy out there."

"And you're telling me this…"

AJ let his words hang and Elizabeth sighed. Why was she explaining? Sure, he had come out in a blizzard to get her, but it wasn't really that. She just felt like he deserved it for even answering the phone when she called. But the way he was looking at her was like it didn't matter. Like, he didn't really need a reason to come out in the snow to get her, even though she was someone who should have had a reason. She wasn't related to him. They weren't dating. He was just doing a good thing for someone who needed his help.

She had to admit, though, that she had given AJ Quartermaine more than a glance or two since the fire. At first, she just noticed that he was pretty attractive. She remembered seeing him when she came to the Quartermaine mansion to see Emily, his chest heaving and his skin slick with sweat from working out. He was chiseled and that alone was enough to make any girl not related to him take a step back and admire to the architecture. But, it wasn't his body that had really given Elizabeth pause. It was the smile he always had when she saw him. AJ lived in what amounted to a lunatic asylum where the patients had taken control, but every time she went over and he came into a room where she and Emily were talking, he had the biggest, whitest smile. No one would ever know that his family drove him to drink, or that he had any problems at all. He just had this smile, and it was amazing.

Elizabeth shrugged and shook her head. "Whatever," she said. "I just… I wanted you to know that I didn't intentionally go drinking in a blizzard, that's all. I didn't expect that my car would be half-buried in just about an hour, or that it wouldn't start when I managed to get to it. I just…" She shrugged again. "I just thought I should explain."

"You don't have to explain," he told her. "I told you if you need anything to call, and you did. And considering you called me from a bar to come and get you, I'm going to take that as a good sign."

"Oh, yeah?"

"You could have just hunkered down with the booze. At least you called."

AJ put his arm out to her and Elizabeth hesitated. She knew he wasn't about to put his arm around her or anything like that, he was just ushering her forward, but it still gave her pause. Would it be so bad if his arm settled around her shoulders? She suspected that it would definitely feel nice, but it wasn't like he'd actually do it. He was Emily's big brother, and while Elizabeth was thinking about the time she saw him fresh from a work out, no shirt, sweat pouring down his chest, he was probably just thinking that he had to get her to safety for Emily's sake.

Elizabeth stepped forward and as she passed him, reaching out for the door, AJ put his hand against the small of her back. The pressure was enough that she could feel his hand even through his coat. He reached open and opened the door. The wind was powerful and knocked her back. She fell into him and then she felt AJ's arm snake around her waist. Elizabeth took in a deep breath as he pulled her back against him, and then pushed them both forward into the storm.

She had only gotten a glimpse of what it looked like outside, and the only description she had for it was white. Elizabeth ducked her head down and closed her eyes tight. She huddled against AJ, her face turned in as much as she could manage. They moved forward slowly, and then she felt them moving back. She didn't really think about it, though, because her mind was on the stinging snow that hit her face. The storm had gotten a lot worse since she first showed up at Jake's, and considering she'd only been there less than an hour, that was pretty freaking quick.

AJ pulled her back inside the bar and had to push against the door to keep it closed. Elizabeth moved around behind him, still holding on to him. He took a step back and Elizabeth moved with him. Then, they stumbled as the door flew open. AJ caught the door just before it hit the wall. If that glass had shattered, there would have been no safety inside the bar.

As AJ held the door closed, Elizabeth ran inside and slapped the bar. "Hey! We need something to bar the door!"

The bartender ran out from behind the bar and grabbed the only other person in the bar, some guy in his thirties, Elizabeth guessed, that she didn't know. They grabbed a table as AJ held the door closed as best he could. The wind pushed him back every ten to twenty seconds, but he was holding his own against the door. She had never thought of AJ Quartermaine as being particularly strong. He was lean, and yeah, he had been a Golden Gloves boxer, but that was years ago. To hold that door, though, there had to be some definite power beneath that tailored suit.

The bartender and his helper pushed the table up to the door. AJ stepped to the side just in time, and he had to let the door go. The wind pushed the door open and AJ was shoved to the side. The table slammed the door shut and AJ dropped his forearms down to the table, resting his body against his arms. Elizabeth watched his body heave as he took in deep breaths. His shoulders stretched out, and the fact that she could see it through not just a suit jacket but his coat as well said that those were some damn broad shoulders. AJ Quartermaine may not have been a boxer anymore, but he definitely kept in shape.

AJ pushed himself up and his eyes locked with Elizabeth's. She felt the flush rushing up toward her face. _Oh God_, she thought, _he caught me looking at him._ But, AJ didn't even seem to notice that her neck was bright red and her chin was starting to get warm. He just looked tired. In shape or not, that wind was fierce, and holding the door closed couldn't have been easy for him.

"Looks like we're stuck here," AJ said.

"At Jake's." Elizabeth said. AJ nodded. "At a bar," she said.

AJ sighed, and then he laughed. Elizabeth stared at him and he just laughed harder. Finally, she asked, "What's so funny about this?"

"An alcoholic whose trying to stop someone from falling into the bottle are trapped inside of a fully stocked bar," AJ said. "Come on, Elizabeth. You've got to admit. It's funny as hell."

Elizabeth glared at him, but she couldn't hold it for long, especially as he started to laugh harder. It was funny. It was screwed up and wrong and yet, it was funny as hell. Elizabeth gave in and she laughed, too. What the hell. It was about time she laughed, anyway, and what better time and place than during a blizzard, stranded in a bar?

33


	7. Chapter 7

_I'm not trying to get you to sleep with me or anything. I mean, yeah, cherry on top, but that's not the point. I'm just trying to get you to notice me. Okay, so I'm not perfect. Most of the time, I'm not even all that nice. I have a very healthy ego and most people don't like that, but you don't seem to care. And you're nice, and you're cute, and I've had a crush on you forever, so…_

Yeah, that was way too honest, and Maxie didn't do that much honesty all at once. As far as Maxie was concerned, there should have been some kind of law against too much honesty. There was already a law against self incrimination, why couldn't there be one against self humiliation? And that was what it would be if she just started blabbering like an idiot, telling Lucky that she really just wanted a nice guy to care about her and notice her. She would turn bright red, and that would completely kill her complexion. The kind of flushes that Maxie got when she blushed weren't for the faint of heart, that was for sure. How was a girl supposed to get a guy to admit that he thought she was hot and worthy of his time when she was bright red and sweating?

Of course, that was kind of hypocritical, considering just how often she told the blunt truth. So, maybe there should have just been a rule against Maxie telling the truth when it involved embarrassing herself. It was okay when it was someone else. And yes, she knew that sounded absolutely horrific, but hey, that's how it went. Sometimes, there were just no bounds to her own selfishness, and Maxie was well aware of that.

She had to say something, though. They were trapped in her little dingy apartment for the duration of the storm. It was going to get really boring, really fast, if something wasn't said or done soon. Though, Maxie did have something to make her more confident. It wasn't her fault that they were trapped. She had been accused of doing a lot of underhanded things in her life, but she had done nothing bad to get Lucky to her apartment. He had stopped by completely on his own, no coercion needed. And well, that had to say something.

Lucky said that he was there to check up on her, but really? Like, seriously? He had to know that she was no dummy. It was snowing like crazy outside, complete whiteout conditions within an hour of the storm really heating up. There was no way she was going out there in that. Nope, Maxie was perfectly fine staying inside where it was warm, and as long as the power stayed on, she could at least watch movies on the TV.

Obviously, then, Lucky had wanted to come see her, and yeah, that excited her. When she looked out the peephole, she had taken a moment to jump up and down like a crazy person. She would have called Sam to tell her how awesome it was that Lucky Spencer was at her door during a blizzard, just to have someone to share her excitement with, but the phone lines were down. Thankfully, she'd been wearing socks, so when she opened the door, she knew that Lucky hadn't heard her jumping up and down.

Now, they were just sitting in silence. The television was on, but the sound was muted. Lucky looked like he was regretting the visit, but there was nothing he could do about it. He was stuck with her. Which meant that Maxie had to come up with something to do or say really quick, or else she'd lose any chance that she had. And, she had to have a chance, right? Hello! He'd risked a blizzard to come see her!

"So," Maxie said, "you're probably stuck here for the night. Maybe even days. We should probably find something to do to occupy the time."

Lucky looked at her, an eyebrow raised, and Maxie felt the flush coming on. "Not that! I'm not…" She shook her head. The way she was starting to blush, she probably should have just rambled on about how much she liked him. She obviously wasn't avoiding the unfortunate consequences to her complexion.

"I just mean that we're gonna be here a while, and if the storm keeps going like that, I'm going to lose my pathetic basic cable and then we really won't have anything to do."

"It's fine, Maxie." Lucky ran his hands through his hair. He tugged a little at the ends, and looked very uncomfortable in that hair. Maxie liked it, though. It made him look a little older, and it was so different from the hair he had when he left.

It wasn't fine, though, because Maxie didn't know what to do. Sure, she knew what to do with boys who were obviously over her place because they thought they were getting in her pants. She knew just how to make them understand that just because she liked to party and was outgoing didn't mean that she was a good time girl. But, Lucky was just there, and he didn't look like he was trying to figure out how to get her out of her clothes. He just looked confused, and that was weird for her. Maxie liked being in control of a situation, and in a situation she didn't understand, she was most definitely not in control.

"Why did you really come over here, Lucky?"

He looked at her and rose an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, you didn't brave a blizzard just to make sure I was alright. You know I'm not dumb enough to actually have gone out in it, and I'm pretty safe in my apartment. So, why are you here?"

He stared at her, and Maxie stared right back. There were very few staring contests that Maxie lost, and she wasn't about to lose this one. She had a question, and she wanted an answer. She would just stare at Lucky until he gave her some kind of answer, even if it wasn't one that she liked. Of course, Maxie didn't even know what kind of answer she wanted, so there was no telling if his answer would be right or wrong. It would, however, be an answer, and that was the something, at least.

Lucky looked down at his lap. He ran his hands flat along both of his thighs, back and forth, back and forth. He stopped at his knees, rounded his knees, and went halfway down his legs before coming back up. He turned to her and Maxie almost wished she hadn't asked the question. He looked hurt, not like the question itself hurt him, but that the answer made him crazy uncomfortable.

"Would it sound cheesy if I said I didn't want to be alone?"

Inside, Maxie was jumping up and down. Ha! She wanted to tell everyone that said that she was making a fool of herself chasing after Lucky. He was damaged and he had too much on his plate to even be bothered with someone like her. But, there he was, in the middle of a blizzard, at her place, all because he didn't want to be alone. And, of all the places he could have gone, he came to Maxie. So yeah, she was jumping up and down and having a par-tay inside.

On the outside, well, she wasn't exactly cool and calm. That wasn't Maxie's style. She was excitable, and the way Lucky looked at her, like he was waiting for something more than a big cheesy grin, he knew that she was doing an internal dance of joy. Even though he knew, however, Maxie still had to at least pretend to be calm and cool and adult about the whole thing.

"That's cool," she said. _That's cool. What kind of mess was that? Did I really say that? Wow, loser!_ Maxie berated herself, then took a deep breath. "I mean, not cool that you sound cheesy. Not that you sound cheesy. I just…" She shrugged. "I think I'm gonna stop now."

"It's fine," he said. Lucky chuckled. "It's part of the reason I came here, I guess. I mean, I could have gone to my mom's and weathered it out there, but…" He shrugged. "I figured you could cheer me up."

"I can do that. I'm great at cheering people up. I should have been a cheerleader, I'm so good at it. But, those uniforms…" She faked a gag and shook her head. "I don't know who thought those were top of the line uniforms. The material alone…" Maxie stopped, twisted her lips as she realized she was wandering far off the topic that she should have been on, or at least the topic that a good friend who wasn't self-centered would be on.

"Wait a minute," she said, "go back. Why do you need to be cheered up in the first place? What happened? Did you have another fight with Elizabeth or your dad?"

Lucky sighed. "It actually has nothing at all to do with Elizabeth or my dad. It's just… Let's say I've developed a mild case of claustrophobia, and I couldn't stand it anymore."

"Oh." Maxie bit her lip. What to do, what to do… Should she press him about it, get him to talk about it? Supposedly, people were supposed to talk about things when it bothered them, or at least that's what people kept telling her. In reality, though, she found that talking about those things just ended up being a complete and total buzzkill. Lucky had come to her for a good time, for some tension relief. Talking about something that made him want to get up and run away wasn't going to do anything but have him running away from her, and that was no way to get a guy.

But, still... Maxie wished she was better at reading people. Instead of reading what was there, she tended to project her own feelings on a situation on others. If it was her, Maxie wouldn't have really wanted to talk about it. She preferred to just let things go away and forget about them. She thought that was what Lucky wanted, considering his whole motivation for coming to her place in a blizzard, but was that really what he wanted, or was she just projecting her own feelings on him? This was one of the reasons why Maxie didn't have very many friends. People put too much effort into making others practice their psychic abilities instead of just saying what they wanted or what they meant.

"So, um… what do you wanna do, then? I mean, there's not much to do since there's a blizzard going on, and I don't really have domestic skills. I can boil a mean pot of water, but that's about it." Lucky laughed and Maxie smiled at him, though she was being completely serious. "I hear delivery places still come out in this weather, if you're hungry, but they expect you to tip really good."

"I'm fine, Maxie, really. I just… I wanted to be around someone else. I wanted to be around you." He paused, then pursed his lips. He was quiet for a second, and Maxie just stared at him, because if she moved a muscle, she was going to do something embarrassing, like jump on him or something. She waited until Lucky was ready to say something, and tried to prepare herself for all of the things that could possibly come out of his mouth.

"I didn't…" He shook his head. "I mean, that sounded weird, didn't it?"

"No," she said, "it just sounded like the truth."

"The truth?"

"Well… yeah. I mean, I am a phenomenal person to be around, especially if you're feeling lonely. I can do pick-me-up really well. The truth is a good thing, Lucky."

"Not always."

"Yes, always. Lies…" She sighed. "Lies just make everybody uncomfortable and they're so hard to keep up. Tell the truth, that's what I say, even if it hurts."

"I think that's why you get in as much trouble as you do."

"Yeah, well…" Maxie shrugged. "It's better than lying to people. And, if the truth is that you felt lonely, and out of all the people in Port Charles you could have gone to, you came to me, well, I think I like that truth."

Lucky smirked. "You do, huh?"

"Of course! It's not like I'm thinking we're gonna get it on or anything during the blizzard. But, it does mean that you like me, and I find that to be a very good thing, because I like you."

"You like me."

"Of course! Otherwise, I'd have killed you for getting snow all over my carpet." Maxie grinned at him and winked. She reached out and slapped Lucky's leg. "Now! We just have to figure out how we're going to weather the storm, and I think we should play a game."

Lucky groaned. "If you say truth or dare…"

"Oh, come on! That's so juvenile." Maxie rolled her eyes, and Lucky laughed her. Whatever. Sure, she was younger than him, but Maxie liked to think of herself as a very mature nineteen. She was well past the days of Truth or Dare.

Maxie jumped up and ran for the small kitchen in the back of her apartment. She reached in the refrigerator and pulled out a dark green bottle. The dark liquor inside sloshed as she grabbed two shot glasses out of a cabinet above the sink, then ran back into the living room. She plopped down on the sofa and put the bottle and glasses on the table.

Lucky rose an eyebrow to her and she said, "Okay, well, Truth or Dare is very, very juvenile. However, when you make it a drinking game, it's Truth or Drink, and that's not very juvenile, at all."

"It's not, huh?"

"Nope, and either way, you end up with a whole lot of truth being told. It's good practice for you and your new life of the hard truth the way I live it."

Lucky leaned forward and picked up one of the glasses. He turned it slowly to the left, and then to the right. "How do you figure that?" Lucky asked. "The truth being told, I mean."

"Well, either you'll tell the truth to avoid taking the drink, or you'll take the drink to avoid telling the truth. But, if you take the drink too many times, well… Liquor does loosen the tongue. So, truth either way it goes, eventually."

"Uh huh." Lucky put the glass down and picked up the bottle of Jagermeister. "And, how did you, underage Maxie Jones, get her hands on a bottle of Jager?"

Maxie smirked at him. She was taking quite a leap. Sure, Lucky was cool and all, but there was always the chance that he would turn her in, or he would start some kind of lecture or something. Maxie was taking a leap of faith that Lucky wasn't that type of guy. He was a guy who grew up with alcohol around, after all, and she was pretty sure that he'd had his fair share of drinks at her age. Besides, they were snowed in. It's not like he had to worry that she was going to have an accident or something, and she wasn't in danger of public intoxication.

"I have my ways," she told him. "Besides, it's not like I plan on drinking very much of it."

"Really?"

"I like to tell the truth, remember? So, Mr. Spencer, since you seem to be averse to telling the truth, it would be you, who is of age, that did most of the drinking." Maxie bit her bottom lip, then laughed. She took the bottle from him and twisted off the cap. Maxie poured two drinks, put one in front of each of them, and then put the bottle on the table between the drinks.

"So, what do you say, Lucky? You want to practice living the Maxie Jones Life of Truth?"

Lucky looked at the bottle for a few beats, then up at Maxie. She watched his face as he thought of the pros and cons. It was hard for people who didn't tell the blunt, honest truth the way that Maxie did. They didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings. They were used to protecting others and keeping secrets. Maxie thought that everyone would be a lot happier if they just told the truth. Okay, so maybe not everyone would be happy, but there would be less stress in their lives.

"Okay," Lucky said. He leaned back against the sofa and nodded. "Let's go with it. Truth or Drink, huh?"

"Truth or Drink, and I'll ask the first question, since it's my apartment, and my Jager." Maxie pulled her legs up on the sofa and folded them beneath her. "On a scale of one to ten, how likely are you to go out with me in the next seven days?"

Lucky stared at her with his mouth wide and his eyes even wider. Maxie laughed so loud that, for a moment, she thought she was louder than the wind that rattled her windows. When Lucky shook himself, picked up his shot glass, and knocked back the Jager, Maxie laughed even harder. She laughed until Lucky slapped the glass back down on the table.

When she could talk without fear that she would take in too much air and turn her laughter into hiccups, Maxie grinned and said, "That's okay. You keep taking that way out of the questions and I'll get that answer out of you before the night's done." And Maxie was pretty sure that the answer he would give, once his inhibitions were low enough, would be the one that she wanted.


	8. Chapter 8

"I should really go." Emily stood up and looked around. Where was her coat? Oh, that was right, Alfred had taken it because it was covered in snow. "Could you please call Alfred so I can get my coat?"

"Have you looked outside, Em? There's no way you're getting off the island now."

"It wasn't that bad when I came over here." Yeah, that was a lie and they both knew it. It was snowing pretty hard when Emily headed out for Wyndemere, and she had actually planned to get stranded on Spoon Island. As he was already showing, Nikolas was far too chivalrous a guy to let her go out there with that storm. Besides, the launch was more than likely closed for the duration of the storm, anyway.

Except, when Emily planned to get herself stranded, she was hoping that it would be on better terms. She and Nikolas weren't enjoying one another's company at the moment, which is what forced Emily up from the sofa and sent her in search of her coat. Really, totally swear, Emily hadn't intended to bring up Lucky and Liz at all. They had just… They just found their way into the conversation, and Nikolas wasn't agreeing with her the way that he should have.

"Well, maybe I can't get off the island, but I'm definitely getting the feeling that we shouldn't be in the same room right now."

"Emily, don't be that way."

"What way? Childish? Immature?"

Emily almost said that she was sorry that they all couldn't be as mature and amazing as Robin Scorpio, but that would have been mean of her to bring that up. Nikolas wasn't exactly proud of his actions after his recovery from that gunshot wound, and throwing it in his face like that really would have been childish and immature. Besides, it wasn't like Robin had done anything wrong. She was just a good person, trying to help him out. Anyway, it was a long time ago, and it would have just been Emily searching for something to humiliate him, and Emily knew that she wasn't like that.

She was just so frustrated with everything. She wanted so many things and it didn't seem like she was going to get any of them. Emily wanted Grandfather to give AJ a chance and stop treating him so horribly, but with Ned always whispering in his ear, that wasn't about to happen any time soon. She wanted Liz and Lucky to get back together, but again, that's not going to happen, especially as she had seen him trudging through the blizzard with Maxie Jones. Obviously, Lucky was moving on, and Liz wouldn't talk about anything.

And then, there was what Emily wanted for herself. She wanted Nikolas to give her the grand, sweeping romance that was supposed to come from falling in love with royalty. Heck, she wanted that romance that should have come with falling in love with anyone. But, of course, to get that, the other person had to be in love, too, and Emily was starting to think that, despite what AJ had told her about getting what she deserved, Nikolas just wasn't going to love her like that. Maybe what she wanted and what she deserved weren't the same thing.

"Don't run away from me," Nikolas said.

"I'm not running away from you," she said with a sigh. "I'm running from myself. I'm running from my own insanity."

"Like you did before?"

Emily felt her cheeks flush and wished she had made that Robin Scorpio comment, after all. He had to know that she was embarrassed about that. Emily stopped herself from turning away, though. She forced her head to rise and forced herself to look Nikolas in the eyes.

"No," she said, trying to make her words even and her voice steady, "that time I was running away from you."

"Why?"

"Hello! You made it very clear that I had just made a fool of myself, Nikolas. I wasn't just going to stand there. I had to get away. So…" She shrugged. "I got away."

"But, you came back."

"Of course, I came back." She rolled her eyes and folded her arms over her stomach. "Sometimes, you're so stupid, you know that?"

Nikolas eyes widened and Emily wondered the same thing that he had to be thinking. Where had that come from? Sure, she had considered just telling Nikolas how she felt, maybe even trying the sudden kiss again, but she had just been thinking about it. She hadn't made the decision to go with it or anything. Her words had surprised herself as much as they surprised him.

Nikolas put his hands to his face, steepled around his mouth and nose. He held his hand there for a second and shook his head. When his hands dropped to his sides, he said, "I have no idea what's going on with you, Em, but I think it would save both of us a headache if you just said whatever it is that's bothering you."

"What's bothering me," Emily said with a snort. "You know what's bothering me. It's been bothering me, and it bothers me that it doesn't bother you."

"So," Nikolas said as he sat down on the arm of the sofa, "I gather that you're bothered by something."

"You…" Emily screamed her frustration, and Nikolas sitting there, staring at her all Cassadine and cool and everything just made her want to scream again. "You're so infuriating, you know that?"

"If I weren't so polite," he said, "I could say the same about you."

"Yeah, well, you're not quite so polite, because you did just say the same thing about me." Emily was proud of herself for not sticking out her tongue at me. She wasn't so proud, though, that it was so obvious from her face that sticking out her tongue was what she wanted to do. The way Nikolas smirked at her said that he knew exactly what she wanted to do and he was getting a kick out of it.

Well, she was tired of Nikolas and everyone else just getting a kick out of her. No one took her seriously. She was cute. She was sweet. She was innocent. She was Emily Bowen Quartermaine, and she was all the goodness in the world. That was hardly fair, was it? It was hard and stressful work being everyone's angel. Emily wanted people to stop looking at her like their little sister, especially guys, and most especially Nikolas. Thing was, though, just like she had told AJ, Emily was pretty sure that Nikolas didn't look at her that way, not all the time, at least. Right now, well, he was looking at her like she'd gone bonkers, which was neither here nor there, but sometimes, sometimes he looked at her like he saw the adult that was inside of her.

"Is it because your uncle wouldn't approve?" Emily asked him.

"What?"

Emily sighed. "The reason you keep coming up with all of these other excuses when I know how you really feel," she said. "Is it because you know your uncle hates my family and thinks I'm too common for you? Because if you think I'm too common, Nikolas, just come out and tell me. It'll hurt, but it won't be as bad as it is now. And if I am too common, well, then, you can just stop looking at me half the time like you want to know if my lip gloss really does taste like strawberries or if it just smells that way?"

Emily took in a deep breath and watched Nikolas. She probably should have taken a breath in there somewhere, but some force inside of her was pushing the words out faster than she could actually think them. By the end of that miniature rant, Emily wasn't even sure what she was saying until it came out of her mouth and hit her own ears. The good thing about it all, though, was that Nikolas apparently had no clue how to respond to any of that, so Emily was given time to figure out what her next move was going to be.

The best move would be to get out of dodge faster than after she had kissed him, but she was kind of stuck. Besides, her body didn't seem to want to move. She couldn't even lift her hand to brush hair out of her face. Even if she wanted to run, which she really, really wanted to do as Nikolas's stare grew longer and longer, her legs weren't going anywhere. Her only real move was to come up with something clever to say, but Emily didn't think that was going to work. Her mouth seemed to have a mind of its own, so really, the only move she had was to stand there and see what came out the next time she felt the need to talk.

"Em, I…" Nikolas shook his head. "We already talked about this."

"No, we didn't," she said. "You told me a bunch of stuff that didn't match the way you act sometimes, and you didn't really give me a chance to say anything else."

"That's not how I remember it."

"Of course, not. Why should you remember it in a way that makes you wrong?" Well, her mouth sure did have a sarcastic streak.

"Em…"

"Nikolas, I just want to give it a shot. I just want you to give me a shot."

"And what if it doesn't work?"

Emily sighed. "This isn't the same thing," she said.

"It's not? We're not friends?"

She sighed again. "We're not Liz and Lucky." She wanted to say that it didn't matter, anyway, because they were going to get back together, but she was trying to take the advice that everyone was giving her. She was trying to stop acting like that was anything more than her own wishful thinking. Besides, she was already into a new argument. She didn't want to get back into the old one. Though, if she really was stuck at Wyndemere for an unknown duration, she was sure to get back into that argument or find herself in some other one before she left Spoon Island. Well, that was, unless Nikolas stopped being foolish and he found other, more interesting ways for them to spend their time.

"Can you say that for sure?" Nikolas asked her. "Can you be so sure that we wouldn't end up hating each other?"

"They don't hate each other," Emily said. "They're angry and they're hurt, especially Elizabeth, but they don't hate each other."

"They're not friends, anymore, and I can't afford to lose you as a friend."

"And what if I said that I couldn't do this?" Emily asked him. Once again, her mouth was going on its own, because that's definitely not what she would have chosen to say if she'd had the time to think about her response. "What if I said that I couldn't keep looking at you and seeing you look at me like that?"

"So what?" Nikolas asked. "You're saying that our friendship is over, either way?"

"No! You're the only one saying that anything between us would end our friendship," she said. "You can't say for sure what would happen later anymore than I can say what would happen. All I know is that it's weak and cowardly to keep acting like there's nothing there because you're afraid, and I never thought you were a coward, Nikolas."

He drew himself up to his full height, which wasn't all that much, really, but when you added in the regality of him being a prince and all, well, it looked a lot more impressive than it would sound if she tried to relay the story to someone later. "I am not a coward."

"Then prove it, Nikolas. We're stuck here for who knows how long, and nothing says that it all has to be all or nothing, this moment, that's it. We can start small. Just prove to me that you're not a coward. Prove to me that you can at least admit that you're attracted to me."

Nikolas stared at her, and as moments of silence passed, Emily wondered if maybe she was wrong. What if she really had just been projecting and Nikolas really didn't feel anything more for her than friendship? It was entirely possible that he'd come up with this whole "ruining their friendship" thing as a way to be a gentleman and avoid said that he wasn't attracted to her. If that was the case, then, Emily didn't care if there was a blizzard going outside. She was going to run as far away from him as humanly possible.

Finally, Nikolas took in a deep breath and prepared to speak. His shoulders rose up, rolled backward, then drooped down as his body sank down. He didn't look so much like a prince right there as he did just a regular guy. Nikolas was probably embarrassed by it, but those times when Nikolas let go of his regal façade where when Emily loved him the most, probably because he didn't do it often, and he didn't do it in front of many other people. It was something special they had, and it meant that he trusted her to see him in what he thought was a vulnerable state.

"Fine," Nikolas said, at last. He looked Emily right in the eyes and said, "I'm attracted to you." Being the new adult that she had told herself she would be, Emily refrained from jumping up and down and doing a dance of victory. "What now?"

"Now," she said, "we talk about it, like adults." Emily moved back to the sofa and sat down, thoughts of leaving Wyndemere no longer on her mind. "Like you said, there's a blizzard going on and I can't get off the island. We have plenty of time to talk about this and come to a proper conclusion."

"And let me guess," Nikolas said, "a proper conclusion is one that has you right all along?"

"Well, of course," she said, smiling wide. "Is there really any other kind of proper conclusion?"


	9. Chapter 9

"Well, this is… not cozy at all." Sam groaned as she leaned against Jason. Damn her subconscious for getting her into this. She could have already been gone. She could have been on a sunny beach somewhere instead of listening to the heavy, wet snow slam against the windows in her mother's house. She could have been having a good time instead of spending every second wanting to scream.

At least her misery had company, though. No one was particularly enjoying the storm. She was sure that, were she and Jason not there, Alexis and Jax could have found something to do. Sam knew that if she'd just gone to the penthouse instead of the airport, she and Jason would have been doing something a lot more fun, with a lot less clothes, at that moment. If she had to be stuck in Port Charles, that would have been a much more preferable way to be there. Sam could at least find a little comfort in knowing that she had ruined her mother's evening, yet again. If she didn't get to enjoy being snowed in, then neither did Alexis.

Nothing had been said since a few minters after Sam and Jason walked in, and good man that Jason was, he didn't even give her a snide remark or smirk or anything when Alexis let them in. Sure, she had hesitated a second, but it was kind of obvious that her hesitation was more surprise to see them at her doorstep than actually deciding whether or not she'd let them freeze to death in the blizzard. The four of them may have been on one another's hate list, but Alexis and Jax weren't about to let them die in the snow.

Of course, Sam thought that maybe it was because Jason's brother worked for Jax. If Sam and Jason were found frozen on the ground a few feet from Alexis's house, it wouldn't look good for Jax. How would he explain to AJ that he had let his brother and his brother's girlfriend die in the snow over a grudge?

A part of Sam wanted to think that it was genuine, though, that her mother was a good person deep down. If there was good in Alexis, there was good in Sam, and Sam had trouble finding the good in herself on many days. Jason kept telling her that she was a good person, but Sam knew things about herself that Jason would never know if she could help it. She had told Jason the gist of it, but never the details. Those were too personal, too damaging.

Now, curled up against Jason, she was warm, physically, but the atmosphere was cold enough that Sam wondered if it was really better than if they had tried to weather the storm in the car. Every once in a while, Alexis looked her way, then turned away when Sam met her eyes. A few minutes later, Sam would stare at Alexis, and it would go again until Alexis caught her and Sam averted her eyes. This was going to be a long night.

Somebody needed to start a conversation. Sam wasn't going to do it, and since Alexis looked like she would rather chew broken glass than talk to either of them, Sam knew it wasn't going to be either of them. Jason was out. He barely talked to Sam, let alone to people he didn't like. That left Jax. He was a businessman. He was used to getting the ball rolling. Sam would have pushed him into it if it didn't mean she'd actually have to start talking first.

As if on cue, as though he knew what she was thinking, Jax cleared his throat. Sam rose her head from Jason's shoulder and looked at him. He sat in a deep beige upholstered chair. Alexis was perched on the arm. Jax's hand rested on her knee. His other arm was draped over the other arm of the chair. While he was obviously not comfortable in the situation, he was the only one in the room who didn't look like he'd just swallowed something disgusting.

"Well," he said, "exactly how did the two of you end up here?"

Sam snorted. Not exactly the conversation she wanted to go for, and if she had been quicker with words instead of just frustrated noises, she could have changed the subject. Instead, the truth machine spoke up. "I was bringing Sam home from the airport," Jason said. Sam shot him a withering look, but he wasn't looking at her. And, if he felt all of the shut-the-fuck-up that Sam was sending his way, he didn't react.

"The airport?" Jax asked.

Sam sighed and shrugged. "I was leaving town."

The way they were seated, Sam had to look around Jason to see Jax and Alexis. If they were going to have a discussion, she would have preferred to look at them without craning her neck and stretching her back. Sam stood up and moved around to sit in front of Jason. She sat with her left leg, up to the knee, on the sofa, and leaned back against Jason. His arms wrapped around her and, even though she was mad at him for opening his stupid truthful mouth, she still felt better. His touch, knowing that he was there, soothed her enough to handle whatever was coming, or at least, she hoped it was enough.

Jax passed Sam a look, but it was Alexis that really stared at her. No one said anything as Sam and Alexis locked eyes. The wind shook the windows and the snow hit harder and harder against the glass. In the back of her mind, Sam thought of all the glass at the front of the house and worried that it wouldn't hold against the weight of the storm. At the forefront, though, was Alexis and knowing that she couldn't turn away first. She couldn't lose this, not when she was back in the game. At the airport, Sam was ready to give in and let her win. But, now that she was back in town, sitting in Alexis's home, no less, Sam wasn't about to let it go.

"Got what you wanted out of the town?" Alexis asked her.

"Actually," Sam said, "no, I didn't. That's why I was leaving."

"I didn't figure you for the kind to give up," Alexis said.

"I didn't give up easily, that's for sure," Sam said. Jason's arms tightened around her, and Sam knew he was telling her to give it a rest. She couldn't, though. She couldn't turn around and look at him, because then Alexis would think that she had won. She didn't win.

In her peripheral, Sam saw Jax's hand sliding to Alexis's knee. He squeezed. Sam hadn't really given Jax much thought, other than he was part of her mother's happy life. By the look of him, he was as uncomfortable with the situation and the impending fight as Jason. If Sam and her mother were alike in any way, it had to be stubbornness. With the men in their lives silently asking them to back down, neither of them were ready to give an inch.

What would happen if Sam just blurted it out right then? She was pretty sure that Alexis would either go into shock or start screaming at her that she was a liar. In either case, Sam would win the stare down. That was a small reason to just go on and tell her the truth. However, part of Sam still considered leaving town the second the flights were cleared, and it wasn't a bomb that she wanted to drop. She wanted to actually see what happened, play it all out. She didn't want to just say it and run. For the time being, she kept it to herself.

As the minutes ticked away and Sam and Alexis continued to stare at one another, the tension grew thicker and thicker. The only movement from either of them was when they blinked, or when Jason or Jax squeezed, trying to get either of them to let go. Finally, probably annoyed by the sheer childishness of it all, childishness that Sam would readily cop to, Jax stood up. He stepped between them, and the game was over. They weren't petty enough to try to go around him.

Sam looked up at Jax and blinked rapidly. Jason tightened his arm around her waist and Sam started to loosen up. She leaned back against Jason and took in deep breaths. This was such a bad idea. Again, Sam thought that it would have been safer, if not physically then at least emotionally, to wait it out in the car. She and Jason may have frozen to death, but at least their last minutes would have been relatively comfortable ones. And Jason talked when it was just the two of them. She could have listened to his voice as he told her about his life since waking up from his coma, told her more about his life before Sam crashed into it and started to give him constant headaches.

Jax said, "It's not lost on anyone here that the two of you would rather eat broken glass than be in one another's company. However, the four of us are stuck here and I would hope that we could all be civilized adults during this situation."

Sam gave him credit. He was admonishing his wife as much as Sam. He looked between the two of them as he spoke, making sure to get the point across. Sam noticed something else, in that time, that she shared in common with her mother. As Jax spoke, Alexis's neck and face flushed with embarrassment. Sam did the same thing when she was being called on her behavior. She had given that same look, with the addition of a pout, when she saw Jason walking toward her in the airport, his blue eyes cold and his body stiff.

Jax turned to Alexis and Sam couldn't hear what they were saying, only murmurs and the occasional high-pitched noise that sounded almost like a squeak coming from Alexis. Jax put his hands on her shoulders and Sam watched as Alexis put her hands slowly around his waist. After a couple of long minutes, Jax sat back down in the chair. He put his hand, once again, on Alexis's knee, and they all went back to looking at each other.

Jason leaned back and pulled Sam with him. As her back fell into him, he whispered in her ear, "Calm down. We can make it through this, but you have to calm down."

Sam turned her head like she was resting her cheek against his chest. "I can't," she whispered. "You see how she's acting."

"And Jax is trying to keep her under control. Don't get us thrown out."

"It wouldn't be all my fault. She hates you, too."

"But, I'm not the one starting an argument. As long as I sit here quietly, she'll ignore our problems for now."

Sam grunted and turned away from his chest. The wind pounded against the house and Sam could hear the front door groaning as it tried to hold the storm out. Sam pulled away from Jason and sat forward. She looked past Alexis, to the door. "Is that going to hold?"

"It should be fine," Jax told her as he turned back to look at it. "The windows, however, give me more of a concern."

A loud bang sounded, and Sam jumped. She whirled around as Alexis jumped to her feet. As she ran out of the room, Sam heard her say, "The back door!" Jax jumped to his feet, and Sam and Jason joined a second later. When Sam reached the kitchen, Alexis was holding the door closed. Without thinking, she ran up and helped Alexis hold the door. A few moments later, Jason and Jax came over with a heavy, wooden table. They pushed the table against the door just as another bang came from the living room.

They ran again, and Sam almost laughed. It was like a cartoon, the four of them racing from one room to another, securing doors. In the living room, snow was blowing hard inside of the open front door. Jason ran forward and shoved the door closed while Jax dragged another table to hold the door closed.

"I think we should go downstairs," Alexis said.

"I hate to say it," Sam said, "but I agree with Alexis." She groaned. "I think I'm going to throw up."

"Thank you," Alexis said with a roll of her eyes. "Because I needed that right now."

"What? Damn, I agreed with you, isn't that enough?"

"What would be enough would be if you just didn't say anything," Alexis said with a sigh. "We have to suffer this situation. I think we should all go back to doing that silently."

"Oh yes, because you always get what you want. Well, since I don't usually get what I want, I'm going to get it tonight. That means I'm going to talk." Sam let out a bitter bark of a laugh. "Oh, am I going to talk. Even if it's just singing The Song That Never Ends, I'm going to talk all night long until I fall asleep, or your head explodes."

"You see?" Alexis's hands jutted out, jerking in Sam's direction, but her eyes looked at Jax. "You see what I mean? She has no purpose other than to make my life miserable!" Her head whipped back to Sam. "What did I ever do to you, huh?"

Sam's hands shot up then dropped back to her sides. "There's not enough time in the world to say the things that you've done to me! You and your precious, wonderful life. You disgust me, you know that?"

"Me? I don't even know you. You came to town and had it out for me. Why? Because I do my job?" Sam only marginally registered that the disgusted laugh that came from Alexis was eerily similar to the one she'd given just moments before. "I hate to break it to you, Sam, but you're dating a criminal. The head criminal! So yes, I'm going to prosecute him. It's my job!"

"Would the both of you quit it!" Jason's voice was louder than Sam ever remembered hearing. His blue eyes were cold and his face was red with his frustration. "Both of you, stop acting like children! You're driving me crazy!"

"This is ridiculous," Alexis said. She moved to stand next to Jax in front of the window. "We let you in because we're not heartless. You'd have never made it out in that storm, and this is how you repay us, by coming into our home and insulting me." She looked at Jax. "And you keep telling me to get along, why? Every time, you act like it's all my fault, but you see, I don't start these things."

"You didn't start it this time, Alexis," Jason said, "but you've started it."

Sam wasn't sure if she should be glad that Jason was defending her or pissed that he was admitting that, sometimes, Sam did start the arguments. She'd figure that out later. At the moment, though, something other than the current battle had caught Sam's attention. Something was hitting the large window next to the door, just behind Jax and Alexis. The wind pushed it up against the window, then there was a break where it went back, and then there it was again. Each time it came forward, it hit the window harder. Sam was mesmerized by it, kind of like watching the metronome before the hypnosis came into effect. Sam felt herself moving toward it, inching forward little by little, and then she was running.

"Move!" Sam shouted just seconds before she shoved Alexis out of the way. And a second later, what looked like half of a very large tree came crashing through the window. Alexis flew into Jax, who pulled her the rest of the way out of the tree's path. Sam, however, was right in the path. She felt the trunk hit her stomach seconds after flying glass scratched at her face. Sam went down hard and, of course, the tree fell on her. Why, of course? Because this night was under the rule of Murphy's Law, and it would just be too easy for the tree to just knock Sam out of the way. Oh no, that wasn't the way of her life, so yes, of course, the tree slammed down on her. And, as life kept going, Sam's head hit the floor hard, and she had just enough time to realize that Jason had expected her to go flying to, that since he couldn't pull her out of the way in time he had been ready to catch her when she flew back. She had just enough time to think of how Jason kept trying to save her before everything went black.


	10. Chapter 10

Elizabeth leaned against the pool table, her hands flat against the worn green velvet. She tilted her head to the side and watched AJ. She had been watching him for a while, because really, she didn't have much else to do. She had tried talking to him, but all she felt she was doing was whining, and that felt like all kinds of wrong, not just because she was whining, but because she was whining in a bar with an attractive guy who was trapped with her because he had come to her rescue.

She kept telling herself that she needed to move on from Lucky, and well, wasn't the best way to move on from one guy to move on with someone else? But, that wasn't really fair to AJ, to use him as a rebound. It was one thing to go into a thing and not know what it was, but something else entirely to go into it knowing that it was just a way to get over someone else.

And, of course, this was all assuming that AJ wanted anything to do with her in that way. So far, he'd really been just a friend. Not even a friend, but a friend of a friend. Common sense said that he only gave a damn about her because of Emily. His sister would kill him if he let something happen to her best friend, so he was doing his best to make sure that he didn't get into hot water.

Though, Elizabeth had to wonder if thinking that way was fair to AJ. If she figured that he was just doing this because of Emily, that meant that she was also making assumptions about AJ as a person. Who was she to say that he didn't actually care, in some form or another? People talked a lot of trash, in town, about AJ, but how did she knew that he wasn't just a good guy? Sure, he had his problems, but that didn't mean he was all bad. Maybe he really did see a girl that was in need of help and he wanted to help her.

It didn't matter, though. Whatever AJ's reasons for helping her, Elizabeth was pretty sure she was jumping the gun by considering his accessibility as a rebound and her own readiness for a rebound. Once again, she was getting too far ahead of herself, just like she had when Lucky came back to town. She had pictured their wedding just moments after seeing him alive, and within a couple of weeks had their children named and dressed for their first days of kindergarten. She had that problem, jumping ahead. She was going to have to work on that. It wasn't very healthy.

But, still, she had to admit that there was something about AJ Quartermaine. He was attractive, that was a definite fact as far as she was concerned, and he was rich. He was also successful, well, as long as you didn't ask his family. To most people, he would qualify as successful, and doubly so to Elizabeth, since he'd gotten that success outside of his wealthy family and despite his alcohol addiction. There was more to him, though, definitely more than she had seen from most of Port Charles's wealthiest citizens.

AJ seemed like he was a good guy with a lot of troubles. Not that she had thought about him all that much. Okay, so maybe she'd thought about him a little, but he seemed to be the only one that understood her, who could understand where she was coming from and where she was heading. So, yeah, maybe she had considered him a time or two, but it was better than thinking about Lucky, wasn't it?

Wrong or not, stupid or not, she had thought about AJ, and she had come to the conclusion that he had to be a decent enough guy. He had come to her rescue in a blizzard, after all, and he couldn't just say that was because of Emily. That storm was so bad, Elizabeth was sure that Emily would understand if he said that he couldn't make it. Why should she expect her brother to risk his life just for her friend? He had, though, which meant that he care about her at least a little, even if that caring was just one human being to another.

Maybe he just wanted to make sure that she knew she had someone who would be there for her. Lord knew, he hadn't really had anyone for him. He had Emily and he had his grandmother, but that wasn't really all that much when the rest of the family was against him. AJ knew what it was like to be on the outside, to have everyone shaking their head at him but not really knowing how to help, so it was entirely possible that it was his sympathy and empathy that drove him to help Elizabeth when they barely knew each other.

But, still, it would be nice, and yes, she had thought about it. He was tall, and he was attractive, and even just that small bump into him on their way out the door told her that there was one hell of a body under that expensive tailored suit. And those eyes… So bright blue, so clear. Okay, so in her not-so-proud moments, i.e. drunken moments, she had let herself consider those eyes looking down at her while their naked bodies were pressed together, sweat causing friction as his skin rubbed against hers.

Wow, she really had to stop drinking.

Elizabeth shook her head and hopped up onto the pool table. She turned her head to the side, stared at the jukebox. It was an entirely different place, different jukebox, with different music, but still, it reminded her of Kelly's and dancing with Lucky. She shook her head again, then turned back to AJ. It was then that she noticed he was looking at her, and she wondered if he'd just started, or if he had been looking at her the entire time.

"So, did I suddenly bore you? Or did I get ugly or something?"

Elizabeth's stomach rolled just seconds before the flush started flying up her neck and into her face. So, he'd been looking at her the entire time, and she had even noticed. Or, at least he'd felt her looking at him. Whatever the case, she'd been so wrapped up in her thoughts of him as a possible, well, anything, that she hadn't even noticed anything about him in the moment. And, in the moment, he was most certainly not naked, lying on top of her, looking down at her with his oh so pure cool blue eyes.

"I just…" She shrugged. "…figured that it was rude to stare, is all."

"Well, it is rude, but it's also interesting."

"Interesting?" Elizabeth asked. "How, exactly, is it interesting?"

"Well," AJ said, "I've been stared at a lot, so I know most stares. There's the disappointed stare that Grandfather has perfected. Grandmother's is good, but it's not really a stare as much as a glance and a shake of her head. There's the pissed off stare that Jason still has, even after his accident. It's weird, he's a totally different person, but the look in his eyes is sometimes just like before I ruined my brother's life."

"AJ…"

He ignored her weak attempt to interrupt him, to admonish him for being so self-deprecative, especially in such a flippant manner, but he just went on. "And Ned, well," AJ said, "Ned has the suspicious stare going on. He always thinks I'm drunk, so he looks at me with this quirky raised eyebrow whenever I open my mouth, because I must be lying. So, yeah, I know a lot of stares."

"Okay," she said. "Well, what makes mine so special?"

"I don't know. I guess that it's not one of those?" AJ shrugged, then went silent for a minute, pensive. As he tried to find his words, Elizabeth looked at him from head to toe. His hair, which was always laying down and smooth whenever Elizabeth saw him, was kind of hard on top, sticking up a little, from the snow mixing with whatever product he used. His jacket was on the chair behind him, and his white dress shirt was wrinkled. His slate gray tie was pulled loose, dangling from his neck. His slacks were still kind of smooth at the thigh, but damp and crinkling at the hem from tromping in the snow. And his shoes, well, they couldn't have been anything but wet, but at least they weren't on his feet. It was a good thing he was sitting at the bar with his feet up on the stool's lowest ring, because walking in his stocking feet on the floor at Jake's would have just been disgusting.

The silence was making her uncomfortable. Was he thinking about what she was thinking? Not the same thing in his own mind, but actually considering what she might have been thinking? God, that would have been embarrassing. Elizabeth didn't like the idea of a crush. It was so childish, and she'd fought her entire life to be something other than childish. Unfortunately, her attempts had only made her more childish, but that hadn't been what she had intended.

Was she crushing on him, though? It was possible. A case of hero worship was right in line with her and guys. Wasn't that what it was with Lucky, until she realized that he actually did feel the same about her? Lucky had saved her, and she had been devoted to him. Was it the same thing with AJ? He hadn't saved her from anything as harrowing as Lucky had, but hadn't he saved her all the same? Well, at least, he was trying to save her. He was trying to save her from herself, and that had to be tough. He had to know from his own experience that it wasn't easy, and Elizabeth sure as hell wasn't making it any easier.

Tentatively, Elizabeth said, "AJ?" He looked up at her and she turned away. There was too much… thinking… in his eyes. It was a good thing that she didn't have to explain that to anyone because it didn't even make that much sense to herself. There was just more in his eyes than she thought should have been there, and she wasn't ready to look at it. Well, she shouldn't have called his name, then, should she? Not like Elizabeth had been making the best decisions lately, anyway. She could just chalk this one up as being par for the course, as of late.

"We should probably go upstairs," AJ said.

Elizabeth's head whipped around so fast that the back of her neck got a small crick in it. "What?"

AJ's eyes went wide and his jaw dropped. He stared at Elizabeth for a bit, and the longer he looked at her, the more she wished she could fall into a hole. It was pretty damn obvious what she was thinking, and even more obvious what he was not thinking.

AJ's mouth opened and closed a couple of times before he said, "I, uh, just meant that there are less windows upstairs."

"You still have a room here?"

It was obvious to Elizabeth that he was fighting to act like the unmentioned accusation wasn't in there. No, Elizabeth wasn't a horny harlot that had thoughts of sex upstairs at Jake's on the brain. Of course, not. Silently, she commended him for his tact in the situation. How had he managed to learn that living with the least tactful family in the history of dysfunctional families?

"I never really had a room here," he said. "My brother has a room here, and I have a key."

"I would have thought Jason would have given that up now that he's got a fancy penthouse."

"I guess he gave it over to his girlfriend," AJ said with a shrug. "Neither of them are here, though, and like I said, there are less windows. It might be safer."

"Safer," Elizabeth muttered. Safer would have definitely been good. Every time the wind hit the windows, Elizabeth jumped. The only way she could get herself not to focus on the wind was to focus on AJ, and well, that wasn't really helping her much, either. "Yeah," she said, "I guess safer is good."

AJ stood up and put his feet back in his shoes. Elizabeth giggled at the disgusted look that twisted his face as he put his feet in the squishy shoes. He looked up at her with a groan, and that only made her laugh out loud, nothing too big, just one bark of a laugh. She couldn't help it. Seriously, who, other than a Quartermaine, came out in weather like that, wearing shoes like those?

Something hit the window and Elizabeth jumped. Her head turned to the window. She started, watching as the wind forced heavy, wet snow against the glass. Yes, she thought, it would definitely be safer with less windows around.

Elizabeth felt AJ come to stand beside her. He was close enough that he almost buzzed against her, like they each had their own fields of static electricity and they were bumping into each other or something. AJ leaned down and, while he didn't whisper, just spoke in a natural voice, he did so with his lips close enough to her ear that she felt his warm breath against her skin.

"The storm isn't the only thing dangerous down here that we should get away from."

She looked up at him and they were standing so close that she could clearly see his eyes. She could see that they light in color, but dark in intent. She could also tell that his intent had nothing to do with her. She turned from the window and AJ to look at the bar, and she knew without looking at him that AJ was now looking at the bar, too. And, considering that Elizabeth hadn't even made a hint that she wanted anything from the bar, she also knew that when he said that they should both get away from the danger, he meant that he needed to get away from the temptation. It was her turn, now, to save him.

Elizabeth hopped down from the pool table, and as she landed on the floor, she grabbed AJ's hand. She squeezed his hand, looked up at him, and said, "You're right. We should go where it's safer." And now, she felt guilty, because she was the reason he was in any danger, at all. If it weren't for her, AJ would have been safe at home instead of fighting the urge to drink in the town's dive bar.

AJ didn't look down at her, not at first. He kept staring at the bar. She took a step forward, but AJ stayed still. Elizabeth squeezed his hand as hard as she could and, finally, he looked down at her. She could see it in his eyes. She had never wanted a drink that badly, but she had wanted Lucky just as much. She knew that look, understood it. He needed a save, and after all he'd done for her, she could return the favor.

"AJ?"

"Yeah?"

"Upstairs."

She squeezed his hand again, making sure her nails bit into his skin, not enough to puncture, but enough to make his arm jerk, enough to get his attention. He finally turned away from the bar and looked down at Elizabeth. "Upstairs," he echoed her. "It's definitely safer upstairs."

She nodded. "Definitely."

Elizabeth was quiet as AJ turned slowly away from the bar. She kept holding onto his hand as he walked her towards the back of the bar, toward the stairs that led to the few apartments upstairs. In the doorway, just before they started up the stairs, AJ looked down at her. In the dark of the stairwell, with the lights behind him, he looked more like a shadow than the Norse god he resembled on a regular basis.

Elizabeth put a foot on the bottom step, starting them up. "Elizabeth." She stopped at her name and turned back to AJ. "Thanks," he said.

"After all you've done for me…" She shook her head and shrugged. "Don't mention it," she said.

"We both do things for Em, huh?"

"And for ourselves," she said.

"And what do you get for yourself?"

There were many things she could have said. _I get to know you a little better. I get to spend a little more time in your company and actually be what you're focused on. _Elizabeth didn't want to sound like a nutjob, though, so she didn't say either of those, or any of the other things that sounded kind of clingy. Besides, if she said any of that, he would ask her why, and she didn't really know why. All she knew was that there was something in AJ in that moment, looking at him staring at the bar, in trouble, that tugged at Elizabeth. And since it didn't make very much sense in her own head, Elizabeth wasn't about to put any of it out in the open. She had learned to think before speaking over the years, and she had just found an instance where those lessons learned helped her out.

"I get to return the favor," she told him. "It's about time I stopped being selfish, and since we're stuck here together, I might as well start by testing it out on you."

Even with his face in shadows, Elizabeth could see his smile by the flash of his white teeth. Even if she hadn't seen it, though, she'd have known by his chuckle. "Well," AJ said, "you're doing pretty good so far."

"Thanks," she said. "Now, come on. I want to get up to this safer place with less windows before I end up slashed by broken glass."


	11. Chapter 11

Maxie leaned back against the arm of the sofa and stretched her legs. She flexed her feet and her pointed toes almost touched the opposite arm. She was getting sleep, but she was still more aware than Lucky. He had chosen to drink on most of his turns, and while he wasn't at the point, yet, of passing out, he was definitely drunk, shit-faced one might even say, if one wanted to be so crude, which Maxie really did not.

The game was easy for her. She told the truth. Sure, some of the questions Lucky asked her should have embarrassed her, and probably would have embarrassed her if she hadn't been ready to just let it all out. She had done enough hinting around and flirting over the past couple of months. It was time to get right down to the point and let her wants be known, and she wanted Lucky Spencer.

Lucky hadn't quite been so open. Maxie had to admit that she had chosen her questions carefully. The goal had been to get him drunk enough to admit things and do things that he might have been too cautious to do when he was sober. Of course, now that he was drunk, she kind of felt bad about it. Mac had burrowed it into her head that drunken consent was not consent. If it was wrong for a guy to get Maxie drunk and have his way with her when her inhibitions were lowered, then it was wrong of her to do the same to Lucky. Which, of course, was totally unfair. Maxie had no problem being a hypocrite. Except that, apparently, she did, since she had yet to guide Lucky's drunk behind to her bedroom.

He'd have totally gone for it, too. He was so wasted that she could probably get him to do anything she wanted him to do. But, what about the next day, when he was sober and his mind was clear? He'd probably wake up before she did and walk through all those feet of snow just to get away from her. He'd probably hate her, too, for taking advantage of him, and that wouldn't get Maxie anywhere with him.

"Am I a good person?" Maxie looked down at Lucky. He looked up at her from his prone position on the floor. Maxie sighed when he didn't answer her and she leaned over enough to be able to punch him in the arm.

"Ow!" Lucky rubbed his arm. "What was that for?"

"I asked you a question, and you didn't answer. Now, let's try again. Am I a good person?"

"I don't know," he said, still rubbing his arm. "I guess."

"Of course, I'm a good person," Maxie said. "I haven't taken advantage of you, or anything. A bad person would have taken advantage of you, already."

"Maxie, I don't really think you could take advantage of me."

Maxie barked a laugh. "Yeah, right! You're so out of it right now, I could strip you naked and spank your butt 'til it was read and you'd just say, 'Yes, ma'am, thanks, ma'am, may I have another.' The fact that I haven't done that says I'm a good person."

"Or," he said, "it means that you've decided that's not the best way to get into my pants, so you're going another route."

Maxie glared at him and stuck out her tongue at him. Lucky laughed at her and she reached down and punched him in his arm, again. Lucky groaned in pain and set about, once again, rubbing his arm. Maxie laughed at him. "That's what you get for laughing at me," she told him.

"You shouldn't hit people when they're in a weakened state," Lucky said with a grunt. "Especially when you're the one that put me in this state."

"I didn't do anything to you," she said, her lips twisting in disdain. "You could have just told the truth and you wouldn't have had to drink. But, oh no, you had to be all mysterious and angsty or whatever. You chose to drink, so you have to accept the consequences."

"The only consequences I see right now are an inability to get up off the floor, and a raging headache that I'm going to have when I wake up in the morning."

"Oh, you better believe that there are more consequences than that."

"Really?"

"You bet your butt, buddy." Maxie dropped her head back onto the arm of the sofa and looked up at the ceiling. "Your biggest consequence is going to be the truth that you tell. I have you hear, in my apartment, safe from the storm, and the least you could do is be honest with me."

"Not this again."

"I'm serious! If you said that I didn't have a chance in hell with you, I'd just accept my losses and move on 'cause ya know, you are not the only hot guy in Port Charles. This town is figuratively teeming with hot guys. There's a hot guy on every street corner these days, and I could have my pick of them because, in case you didn't notice, I am a hot chick."

Lucky grumbled something and Maxie sat up and looked down at him. "What did you say?" She thought she knew what he had said, but she was going to get him to admit it, out loud, where she could clearly hear him.

"Nothing."

"Oh, no, not nothing. You said something and you're going to say it right now, buddy, or else."

"Or else, what?"

"Or else…" Maxie paused, thought about it. What could she believably threaten him with? She couldn't say she'd toss him out into the cold, because she wasn't that cruel. Neither could she say that she would never talk to him again. For one, he just might enjoy it too much, or at least that's what everyone else she had threatened with her silence had said. And, for two, Maxie was pretty sure that, with the two of them stranded in her apartment, she couldn't go that long without talking.

"Or else," she saisd, "I'm going to talk like you've never heard me talk before. We'll start on current fashion trends and where I think they're headed. From there, we'll move on to celebrities. I know a lot about celebrities, and that will segue right back into fashion, because I have a lot to say about what celebrities where and what they do to their hair, and let me tell you that none of it is good. Celebrities seem to think, oh hey, I'm famous, so I can put two cones on my chest and walk around like it's no big deal, but let me tell you something, buddy, it's a big deal because it's tacky and I don't want to see girls with cones on their chests. And another thing—"

"Alright! Alright!" Lucky put both hands in the air. "I give. I'll tell you."

Maxie snorted in triumph and folded her arms over her stomach. "I thought so."

"I agreed that you were a hot chick, alright?" Lucky's arms dropped back to his sides and hit the floor with a soft thud. "Is that what you wanted to hear?"

"Yes, actually," she said, "because that's what I thought you said. I just wanted to be sure so I would know that I wasn't just hearing things that I wanted to hear instead of what you actually said."

"Uh huh." Lucky put his hands to his face and held them there. His voice was muffled as he said, "Now what?" He dropped his hands back to the floor and asked, "Is this the part where you jump me and since I'm drunk, I let you have your way with me?"

"No," she said. "I'm a good person, remember? Drunken consent is not consent. Instead, this is where I make you admit all the possible feelings that you might have for me so that, when you're sober, it's all out in the air and I can hold it over your head until you go out on a date with me and let me show you that I make an excellent girlfriend."

"I don't know how much I believe you."

"What?" Maxie asked. "That I can convince you?"

"No," he said, "that you make an excellent girlfriend."

Maxie balked and Lucky winked at her. "How dare you!" She snatched a decorative pillow from behind her back and swung down hard. It hit Lucky in the stomach, but he kept on laughing. "You are a hideous human being, you know that?"

"I'm a better person than you are," he said as his laughter died down. "I didn't get you drunk."

"And I didn't get you drunk. Like I already said, you got yourself drunk by being a little scaredy cat. You could have just fessed up. In fact, why don't you fess up right now? You think it could be pretty fun to date me."

"Maxie…"

"Just admit it, Lucky. Right now, I'm everything you want and need in a girlfriend. I give you your space—"

"Oh, really?" Lucky said, cutting her off.

Maxie stared down at him. She frowned. "Fine," she said, "so I've been kind of stalking you, but once I have you, I won't have to stalk you anymore."

"Uh huh," he said. "What else?"

"Well," Maxie said, "I have no expectations of you." He looked up at her like he didn't believe her and she said, "It's true! Sure, I kind of had a crush on you before, but that's all it was, a crush. I didn't dream about you when you were dead or anything. It's just that when you came back, you were a different Lucky, and it's that Lucky that I'm interested in."

"And what is that Lucky? Who is he?"

"He's kind of broody, but he's fun, too. He wants to live his life, and he just wants to live again. I can see it in you, Lucky," Maxie said. "I can see this fun guy that's trying so hard to get out, but he's being held down by everybody trying to get him to be someone else. I just want you to be you."

"You don't even know who I really am. What if I'm a crazy person or something?"

"Yeah, no," she said. "If you were crazy, you'd have snapped on Elizabeth by now. You can obviously control yourself, and considering I've seen you cry, you have to be an emotional human being. Therefore, thither and thus and such, or whatever people say to sound smart, you, Lucky Spencer, are a good man, and I trust that you won't go totally out of your mind and murder me like a crazy person."

She expected Lucky to laugh or say something witty, but all he said, was, "Huh."

"That's all you have to say? Huh? I just put my complete faith in you and," she said, "and said that I didn't think you were a psycho killer, and all you have to say is huh?"

"My brain isn't exactly working at top speed right now, Maxie." Lucky put his hands to his face and pulled down. His hands slapped his stomach and he looked up at Maxie. "I don't think I can even move right now without throwing up, so yeah, all I've got is huh."

"Well… Huh." Maxie folded her arms and once again stretched out on the sofa. She looked up at the ceiling. She had to admit, this was not how she had expected the night to go. For one, she hadn't really wanted to get him totally plastered. She had some hopes of getting laid, or at least making out. That's about as drunk as she wanted him. But, on the other hand, being this drunk did get him to admit some things and got him to really listen to what she had to say, instead of just walking fast enough to get away from her and completely ignoring it. But, then again, he was also pretty damn wasted, so who was to say that he would remember any of this when he was sober. And, if he did remember it, she couldn't guarantee that he would admit to remembering any of it.

Maxie moved to her side and pointed down at Lucky. "You better remember all of this tomorrow," she said. "And you better well admit to everything said tonight."

"And what was said tonight?"

"That I would make an excellent girlfriend for you."

"That's what you said," Lucky said. "I don't remember actually saying that."

"You thought it, and you full well know that you want to give it a shot. So, I'm just saying, you better remember what was said and what wasn't said, because I'm not going through this again."

"And what if I forget?"

"If you forget…" Maxie paused. What could she say? She had just said that she wasn't going to do it again, and she kind of meant it. At the very least, she wasn't going the drunk route again, but there were other things she could do.

"So, you're just giving up?"

"Oh no, buddy. I don't give up. I just change my tactics."

"Well," Lucky said, "I guess we'll just have to wait until tomorrow to see what happens."

Lucky closed his eyes, but there was a smile on his lips. It was a small smile, but enough of one for Maxie to recognize it. Lucky was playing with her. He was manipulating her. She knew a manipulative, teasing smile when she one! She had perfected it!

And Maxie smiled her own smile, hers of satisfaction, as she let her body relax and closed her eyes. She didn't have anything to worry about. Not a thing, at all.


	12. Chapter 12

Sam's eyes opened, and at first, she thought she must not have been hurt so bad. She didn't hurt nearly as much as she thought she should have. There was a heaviness to her stomach, and her head ached, but that was about it. Well, that was it until she tried to sit up.

Sam tried to scream, but it came out as a hoarse croak. Her shoulders were only an inch or two off the ground, because that's all she could raise. Her legs twitched, though, and she felt the pine needles digging in, piercing her jeans, and that was a good thing. She wasn't paralyzed. The thought managed to pierce the pain for a second, and it made her stop screaming. At least, it made her stop for a moment, because she laid back down and pain shot through her again.

The tree had fallen across her body, the thick trunk across her stomach and pelvis, with heavy branches over her legs. She knew there was no way she could get the trunk off her stomach. She could barely move her legs beneath the branches.

Sam screamed again, but this time it was in frustration. Un-fucking-believable! Stuck in Port Charles, stuck at Alexis's house, and now stuck with a freaking tree pinning her down!

When the screaming stopped and Sam really took the time to take in everything, she realized that Jason was so close to her, kneeling behind her head. Jax knelt to her left, looking around the end of the tree trunk. Alexis stood off to the side, her eyes wide and her hands at her sides. Well, at least she wasn't laughing. For a second, Sam had wondered if there would be some kind of glee in her that she was finally going to be rid of Sam. Whether she died or not, Alexis probably thought that this would at least get her out of her hair for a while.

Yeah, well, not likely. If she was going to die, then she was going to make sure Alexis knew the truth. And if she ended up in the hospital, she was going to call her every day and remind her that it had happened in her house. Either way, Sam wasn't going to be rid of her.

Though, as she lay there, actually considering that she might die, Sam kind of wished she had already told Alexis the truth. Yeah, she had Jason there with her, and if she had to die, at least he was there to hold her hand, but there was something to be said about having her mother there, too. This would have been the perfect time to tell her. Sam figured that Alexis was so shocked, that she might forget for the little time Sam had left that she hated her, and maybe her mother would show her face, and she'd get that out of it.

"Sam, be still." Jason's voice made Sam go still, and shifted her focus. What would Jason do if she died right there on Alexis's living room floor? Would he cry? Would he start blaming people? How long would it take him to forget her and move on?

"Sam," Jason said, "can you hear me?"

It would probably be best if he forgot quickly. Sam was only meant to go in and out of his life in a flash, anyway. He was kind of attached, but he could shake it off pretty easily. He'd at least make sure that Sam got a decent burial. That was better than she could say for most of the people that she had met in her lifetime. But, still, he'd get over it. He'd forget about her. Everybody did eventually.

"Sam!"

"I hear you," she said. "I hear you."

"We can't just…" Alexis's voice cut off and Sam rolled her head to see her. She was pointing at the window. The wind was still blowing hard and bits of glass flew around the room, mixed with the snow and other debris. To be heard, Alexis had to yell. "She'll freeze to death if we just leave her laying there."

If Sam hadn't heard actual concern in Alexis's voice, she would have said something smartass. Wouldn't that be so convenient for her? Without Sam there, her life would be easier and her path to getting Jason in jail would be clearer. Those thoughts must have been somewhere in her mind, but giving the woman credit as the human with real emotions that people kept swearing her to be, Sam didn't think she was really thinking about any of that. She just saw someone on her floor, hurt, and it didn't matter that it was someone she hated.

"We can't move the tree," Jax said.

"But…"

"He's right," Jason said with a sigh. "For all we know, she's got some kind of internal damage. The tree could be the only thing keeping her together."

"We have to do something!" Alexis shouted. "We can't just leave her there!"

"Alexis…" Jax stood up and walked around to Alexis. Sam watched him until he moved behind Jason and she couldn't see him anymore. She had to turn her head to see anymore and she caught him coming around from behind Jason.

Jax put his hands on Alexis's shoulders and said, "Take a deep breath. Calm down."

Her eyes were wide, and she was more frantic than Sam had ever seen her. "How am I supposed to calm down when there's someone laying on our floor with a tree pinned on her? And now what? We just leave her here and go for cover?"

"I'm sure Jason will stay with her, and I'll stay, since our house. I want you to go down into the basement and get cover."

"I don't think so," she said. "It's my house, and I'm not…" Alexis leaned into him, but with the wind, there was no way for her to really lower her voice. "If she pulls through, I am not living the rest of my life with her giving me crap because I left her laying on my living room floor."

Sam would have laughed if breathing didn't already hurt. She couldn't really blame her. If it was the ot her way around, Sam would have been wondering the same thing and more. She'd have been wondering how people would have tried to blame her for it, like she could set up a blizzard and force a huge tree to come through a window or something.

"Talk to me, Sam." Her attention was taken away from Alexis and Jax by Jason's voice. She tried to bend her neck so that she could look up at Jason, but it hurt too much to move. "Don't," he said. "Just talk."

"What do you want me to say?"

"Anything. I just need you talking."

Well, she certainly wasn't about to get all mushy and stuff in Alexis's living room, so anything about their quasi-relationship was out. She could talk about how much she was hurting, but that wouldn't really help anything. It would only make Sam more aware of her pain, and make Jason more aware of his helplessness in it.

"I bet this isn't the way you expected the night to turn out, huh?"

Jason grunted. "Not exactly."

"What did you expect?"

Jason was quiet and Sam wished she could see his face. "I don't know what I expected," he finally said. "I was just thinking that I couldn't let you leave. But, now, I don't know. Maybe I should have left you at the airport."

"Jason?"

"If I hadn't come after you, you wouldn't be like this. You'd have been safe there. You'd be leaving in the morning, or whenever they reopen the airport, but you'd still be alright."

"I don't know what to say to that," Sam said. She turned her head to the side to look at Alexis. The wind was loud enough that she couldn't hear what Alexis and Jax were saying, but whatever it was, Alexis wasn't liking it.

Sam closed her eyes as a gust of wind blew snow and bits of glass in her face. She shivered and folded her arms over her chest. "I'm cold."

Jason ran his hands quickly up and down her arms. The friction brought a little warmth, but Sam knew the cold wasn't just from the weather. She had to be going into shock, and what followed that?

"Can you believe it? I actually pushed her out of the way."

Jason stroked her cheek. "You wanted her to suffer," he said. "You didn't want her dead."

"I guess," she muttered. Sam groaned. The pain was starting to go away, and she was pretty sure that was a bad thing. "Tell me the truth, Jason."

"You know I can't lie."

"Yeah, well, just humor and act like you'd have lied, alright?" She grunted. "How long do you think it'll be before anyone can get to me?"

"You don't want to know."

"If I didn't want to know, I wouldn't have asked."

Jason took in a deep breath, and his words were slow and even when he spoke. "The storm is still going, and we don't know how many other calls they might have gotten before ours. They still have to clear the roads, so… it's probably going to be a while."

"A while," Sam said. "Great."

Sam closed her eyes, and she heard Jason telling her to keep talking, but what she wanted to do was think. They weren't alone, and the things she talked to Jason about weren't meant to be said with other people around, especially when those people were Alexis and Jasper Jacks. All she could say, safely, was a reiteration every couple of minutes that she was still awake, she was still there.

Sam laid there, listening to the wind and feeling the cold air come against her. She was starting to go numb, but she didn't know if that was from her injuries or from the cold. She supposed it was a little of both, and she hoped that it was more the cold than the injuries. That was easier to fix, at least in the short run.

Someone knelt beside her and Sam opened her eyes. She watched as Alexis shook out a blanket and draped it over Sam. As she tucked the blanket around her, one of Alex's hands brushed Sam's cheek. Sam looked up at Alexis. "Thanks," she said, and it was easier than she thought it would be to say anything nice to the woman.

"I can't just let you freeze, and since they say we can't move you, this is the best we can do." Alexis finished tucking the blanket as best she could and sat back on her heels. "How is that? Better?"

"Yeah."

Alexis thrust both hands into her hair and squeezed at the scalp. Her hands dropped out of her hair and fell to her lap with a slap. "You pushed me out of the way," she said.

"Yeah."

"Why?"

Well, she wasn't about to just say that she couldn't watch her mother get taken out by a tree. She was saving that little tidbit for when she was a little more sure that she was actually going to die. As long as she had enough strength to see some kind of hope, she was going to try and stay as positive as she could.

"Instinct, I guess," Sam said. "You'd have done the same, right?"

"Of course. I just… I guess I thought…"

"That I was that kind of person? That I could just stand back and watch things like that?"

"You spend a lot of time watching things worse than that."

Sam groaned. "I have never watched Jason do anything illegal, so, as much as I care, he hasn't done anything illegal."

"You're loyal," Alexis said with a grunt, "that's for sure. Even if that loyalty is misplaced."

In some kind of silent answer of his own, Jason reached out and grabbed Sam's hand. Being more the verbal sort, and with words keeping her from thinking about the numbing sensation going through her body, Sam spoke aloud. "My loyalty is just fine where it is."

"You think that now, but one day…" Alexis sighed and shook her head. "Nevermind. This isn't the time or the place." Alexis pushed herself up to her feet. "I'm going to get you another blanket. I'm going to get blankets for all of us."

"You can go downstairs," Sam said. "It's safer."

"I'm fine," she said and turned.

As Alexis walked away, Sam asked Jason, "What just happened?"

"I'm not really sure."

"Well," Sam said, "at least it's not just me." She closed her eyes and tried to focus on the warmth that she was getting from the blanket, but the wind was still blowing and the snow was still coming in. It distracted her, and all she seemed able to focus on was the blanket itself, and that Alexis has brought it to her, had tucked her in, just like she had wished her mother could have done when she was little.

Sam sighed. If she survived this night, it was going to be the longest one of her life.


	13. Chapter 13

At the third grimace, Elizabeth decided to actually say something. She wasn't a nurse yet, only halfway through the courses, but she knew enough to know when someone was in pain, and enough of the nurturer was in her to want to at least take a look. She stood in front of AJ and crossed her arms over her stomach. "Take off your shirt," she said.

AJ looked up at her, his eyes wide, his mouth slightly agape. "Wh-" He shook his head. "What?"

"Take off your shirt," she said again, this time punctuating each word.

"Uh… why?"

Elizabeth sighed. "Every time you turn to your left, you grunt and hold your side. Obviously, something happened. So, take off your shirt so I can get a look at it."

AJ grunted a laugh. "I thought you were just a nursing student."

"I am," she said, "but I'm also the closest thing you've got to a medical professional right now, and unless you're bleeding internally and half dead, I'm probably the closest you're going to get for a long while."

It didn't take Elizabeth long to realize that they were, more than likely, very far down the list of people to be rescued. She knew enough about the people of Port Charles to know that a lot of them didn't stay home when weather like this hit. Wasn't she one of those idiots that went out when a blizzard was coming? That many people out on the roads, on the sidewalks, on the streets, there were bound to be a lot of emergencies once the crews were able to get through. The only way they were going to get higher on that list was if somebody had a serious accident. Elizabeth didn't really want to deal with something that major, though, so she had to accept that she was going to be stuck at Jake's with AJ for a while, probably the rest of the night and through quite a bit of the morning.

That wouldn't be too bad, though, being trapped in close quarters with a hot guy. Maybe right now he just looked at her like Emily's friend, but who knows. After it was all over, once the snow was cleared and the injured were cared for, once they had spent enough time together, maybe AJ would look at her in another way.

No, see, that right there was her problem. Elizabeth didn't used to have this need to have a boyfriend. She blamed Lucky. She was just happy without relationships until she'd actually been in a real one. Now, it's what she wanted. She wanted a shoulder to lean on and someone to laugh with when she couldn't hold it in anymore. She missed curling up next to someone and watching a movie. AJ seemed like the kind of guy who would laugh at her when she buried her face in his shoulder when she was scared, but at the same time, would rub her arm soothingly until it was over. He seemed like boyfriend material, and if anyone was going to get him, why not her? She was as good as any other girl he might hook up with, wasn't she?

And there she went again. How did talking herself out of the idea end up the entirely other way around? She didn't need a boyfriend, and she was not just trying to get him out of her clothes. And no, as they sat in silence, listening to the wind outside rattle the windows, he did not look at her like maybe he was thinking that she wasn't so young, after all, and she was a nice person. They were just stuck in a situation, and at the moment, the situation called for AJ to take his shirt off.

"Come on, AJ," she said, "take off your shirt and let me see. Otherwise I'm going to do it for you." Yeah, she probably shouldn't have added the last but, oh well, it was too late to take it back.

AJ considered it. Elizabeth could see it in his eyes, the back and forth, should he or shouldn't he. In the end, he must have decided that it was worth it, because he stood up. AJ moved slowly, taking out first one arm from his jacket, and then the other. With each move, he grimaced, and with the last tug of his jacket, as it fell to the bed, he groaned. AJ took in short but deep breaths. His shoulders hunched forward and sweat beaded his forehead. All of that exertion, and he'd only taken off his jacket. The shirt was going to be unbearable.

"Here," Elizabeth said, "let me help you."

AJ stood up straight and shook his head. "It's fine," he said, "I can do it."

"Why is it that guys always say they can do something when it's obvious that they can't?" Standing in front of him, she reached out and grabbed his tie. Within minutes of getting up stairs he had already loosened it, leaving it to dangle around his neck. Elizabeth pulled it up over his head and tossed it to the bed. With nimble fingers, she unfastened the top button.

Elizabeth looked up at AJ, all the way up his tall frame until she met his blue eyes. A voice in her head told her that she was doing this because of Lucky. Even if it was just out of loyalty to Emily, AJ gave her the comfort and support that she couldn't get from Lucky. With AJ, she could help where Lucky pushed her away. Transferance of emotion, she thought they called it.

But, she also considered that maybe she wasn't just transferring her feelings for Lucky onto someone else. AJ had revealed a little of himself as a person to her, and she liked that person. He was also like her, a black sheep that tried to make his family proud but never seemed to quite reach those goals. Plus, he sure wasn't hard on the eyes. What girl wasn't interested in an unattached attractive man?

"Admit it, AJ," she said, "you need my help."

Elizabeth could tell that he wasn't accustomed to asking for help, probably because he knew he wouldn't get it. Elizabeth just didn't like asking for help. She couldn't imagine how horrible it had to be to know that even if she asked, it wouldn't be given. She and her family didn't always get along, but compared to the Quartermaines, they were the Brady Bunch.

A heavy breath pushed past his lips. "Fine," he said, "I need your help."

"Yes," she said, "you do."

Elizabeth tapped her fingers down his chest to the next button, and then the next. As his shirt opened more, Elizabeth had to force herself not to slip her fingers inside. His chest was smooth but strong. The skin looked soft and her fingers itched to see just how soft it really was. But, no, she was being professional. She had not asked AJ to take off his shirt to be a perv. She was just trying to help.

The last button came undone and Elizabeth rose her hands to his shoulders. She looked up at AJ as she pushed the shirt over his shoulders and down his arms. She knew that it wasn't actually necessary to take the shirt completely off. She could have just pushed it aside once the buttons were undone, but hey, she hhad him there, taking his shirt off, might as well go for the whole thing, right? Besides, it's not like AJ objected. In fact, the look he gave her as they locked eyes wasn't even uncomfortable. It was appraising, and liking the figures that came up in his head.

The shirt stuck at his wrists, and their eyes unlocked. Elizabeth laughed nervously as she reached down and unfastened the buttons at his wrists. The shirt fell to the floor in halves, first the right, then the left. In other circumstances, stuck with some other guy in a room at Jake's, this would probably be the point where it was Elizabeth's turn. She half expected AJ to make some kind of wisecrack to the fact. He gained quite a few points, though, when he didn't say anything at all.

Elizabeth had heard that AJ used to be a boxer, but she hadn't ever actually put the look of a boxer together with the look of AJ. In his business suit, with his Windsor knot and freshly shined shoes, he looked like a businessman. The clothes hid his smooth tanned skin and his chiseled chest. They hid the abs that spanned his stomach like perfect mounds of muscle. Elizabeth pulled her hands back and flexed her fingers. She was not going to feel those muscles, she was not.

She did have to touch him, though. She saw the bruising that started to intrude on the perfection of his stomach, and grew as Elizabeth's eyes moved to the side. "The um, the doorknob must have gotten you when the door flew open."

Elizabeth took a deep breath and reached out slowly. _I can do this_, she told herself. _Just be clinical, professional. This is what they're teaching me. I can do this._ With her fingers splayed, her index fingers touching, she reached toward AJ. Her fingers landed lightly on his side. The skin around the bruising was warm, and grew slightly warmer as she moved up toward his ribs.

Elizabeth looked up as she said, "Does this hurt?" She moved her fingers back down to the bruise and pressed. He winced. "Okay," she muttered, "that hurts." She moved back up toward his ribs. "Does this hurt more?" She pressed with the same amount of pressure and this time a small groan escaped his lips. "I'll take that as a yes."

"Yeah," he said between clenched teeth.

"I'd say that you probably have a cracked rib." She bit her bottom lip. "Does it hurt anywhere else? Like, in your stomach or anything?"

"Just around the bruise," he said. "A little up, little down. Probably cracked ribs."

Yeah, something he would have known from his boxing days, so Elizabeth wasn't helping that much anyway. Elizabeth sighed as she stood up, her hands falling to her sides. "It would probably be best to tape them up, but we don't have anything to tape them up with."

AJ grunted a laugh and Elizabeth asked, "What?"

"I keep my gym gear in my car," he said. "I've got tape in my car."

Elizabeth looked to the window. She couldn't even see outside anymore. The window was covered in snow. "And we're not getting to the car."

"No," he said, "we're not."

She looked at AJ again. "I think it just looks worse than it actually is." When she touched the bruise again, she told herself that she wasn't just making up a reason to touch him, that she was actually inspecting him for anything worse, but she wasn't pressing, and all she could feel was the heat of his skin and her own pulse in her fingertips.

"I just have to be still, wait out the storm. It'll be fine." AJ's voice was soft, but strained. Elizabeth looked up at him and his eyes were on her. He'd been looking at her even when she wasn't looking at him.

"As long as it just stays in that spot. If it spreads to the rest of your abdomen or something, that would be bad. Of course, that would probably move us up a little bit on the rescue list, if we could get a call out to let anyone know that we need to be rescued. But, as long as it stays at the bruise and doesn't move…"

"I'll be fine," AJ said.

"Yeah." Elizabeth looked down at her hand, thinking she would take one last look at the bruise, only to realize that her fingers were no longer on the bruise. Her fingers now hovered over his stomach, her fingertips just barely touching the skin above his navel. Tentatively, Elizabeth pulled her hand back, her fingers still up and arched. Her hand jerked, then her arm lowered to her side.

"You should lie down," Elizabeth said. She turned her head to the side and pushed a lock of hair behind her ear. "It's better for you than sitting up, especially if you did crack or bruise a rib or something."

"Elizabeth?"

"Yeah?"

"Can you help me get my shirt back on?" She turned back to him as he said, "It's kind of cold up here."

"Yeah," she said, "sure." Elizabeth kept her eyes averted as she moved around him. She picked his shirt up, then climbed up on the bed to get better leverage. Kneeling on the bed, she lowered the shirt until AJ could slip his arms inside the sleeves. Her face was close to his body and she could smell his skin, a mixture of a light misting of cologne and sweat. She held her breath before she ended up sniffing his skin.

Elizabeth pulled the shirt up his arms and rounded it forward on his shoulders. Her hands lingered on his shoulders for a moment, long enough to be a little bit too long. Elizabeth climbed off the bed and moved around in front. This was no safer. Now, she was back to staring at his chest. Her hands shook as she rose them to fasten the buttons.

AJ reached up, put his hands over hers. "It's alright," he told her. "You can leave it."

Elizabeth gulped. "So we can keep an eye on it."

"Yeah."

She looked up at him. Maybe this was just a hero complex. AJ had come to her rescue twice now, and she was vulnerable. Of course she would find herself attracted to him. Wasn't that what happened with Lucky? This was even more obvious because she'd already sorta kinda liked Lucky before that Valentine's Day. When it was all over and life was back to normal, she and AJ would go their separate ways and things would be great.

Except, it wouldn't be so bad if AJ really did have an interest in her. They were both injured souls with broken hearts, weren't they? They both needed someone other than Emily to rely on, that was for sure. Would it be so bad if they had each other, at least for a little while? Didn't they deserve that much?

She was probably reaching in her loneliness and pain, but she had to admit… It really wouldn't be so bad.


	14. Chapter 14

Alexis gathered the blankets and managed to hide the tremble in her hands from both Jason and Sam. The touch at the small of her back informed her that her stealthiness wasn't quite stealthy enough to escape the ever observative gaze of her husband. She allowed herself to lean towards him, relishing in the warmth of his body and the simple nearness of him. The night was going to get worse before it got better. And that wasn't her general Russian pessimism talking. It was cold, hard fact. She just had to believe that they all would live to see the better.

Jax had done his best to cover the broken window. A large black and green tarp made of garbage bags and camping tents, held together by gray duct tape, stretched from one end of the room to the other. They were still cold, and the way the wind and snow pounded against the makeshift siding said that it wasn't going to last for long, but at least it was something, at least it was a barrier of some sort.

Alexis let Jax pull her away from the couple on the floor, but she watched as Jason took the extra blankets she had given him and tucked them around Sam, all of them. She looked for some kind of tremble in him, something that showed that he was cold, but his only movements were his arms as he put the blankets around Sam and his lips as he talked to her.

Jax put an arm around Alexis's waist and she felt him moving them back. He had already readjusted the furniture, moving the sofa out from underneath the head of the tree that had come crashing through the window, allowing somewhere other than the floor to sit. He moved her to the far end of the sofa, then sat down. Alexis kept her body against him, touching him. He made her feel safe. Alexis turned to face him. She put a hand on Jax's leg. "Did you get through to anyone?" Alexis asked him. Her husband was an adventurer, a survivalist of sorts, and with all of the other inclement weather and emergency gear in the basement was a CB radio.

Jax sighed. "I got through to someone at the PCPD. They have people, volunteers, out attempting to reach the most severely injured."

"And they put her on the list, I hope?"

"Very near the top," Jax told her. Alexis's eyes widened. She could hardly imagine worse injuries where the victim was still alive for the rescue that was heading their way. "It's slow going."

Alexis leaned back and pressed her head against Jax's shoulder. She closed her eyes and took in a deep breath. He smelled of the sweat of his exertion, and underneath, expensive cologne. Alexis sighed. "I'm thinking dark, Cassadine thoughts right now."

"And those would be?"

"I'm thinking how much easier this whole mess would be if they had just ridden the storm out in their car and never came to the door. Or, if we had just slammed the door in their faces. We would be downstairs right now, waiting for the disaster to end. Of course, the front of the house would still be a mess, but that could be fixed. There wouldn't be blood on the living room floor."

Jax chuckled. "Yes, that's very selfishly Cassadine," he said. "Of course, I know you well enough to know that you don't really mean that."

"Oh believe me," she said, "there's part of me that believes it with everything that part has got. I want them out of my house and out of my life."

"But…"

"But…" Alexis sighed. "Seeing the two of them like this makes me think that perhaps there is more to them than just criminals and being severe pains in my ass."

Alexis sat up and looked to Sam and Jason. The way he hovered there, uncaring of his own discomfort, his own safety… There was definitely more to their relationship than Alexis had suspected. In truth, she hadn't thought of it as much of a relationship, at all. Everyone was aware of their sexual relationship, but she hadn't thought it went much further, in a personal sense. A working relationship, well, it was obvious they had one of those, but real feelings… She was too busy thinking of them as a menace to society to think of them as anything else.

Now, however, watching them together, Alexis knew there was more to them, and because of that more, she felt sorry for them. She was sad for Sam's pain, albeit grateful that Sam had pushed her out of the way. She was also sad for Jason's pain if Sam didn't make it, and with the slow pace that rescue was working at, her chances of getting out of this alive seemed less and less likely.

Had they taken that into consideration? Were they already saying their last goodbyes, just in case Sam fell asleep and never woke up again? Though Alexis had felt the need to stand over Sam, to stand watch, guard, whatever one wanted to call it, the thought that they were saying goodbye made it okay for her to let Jax take her away from them. Besides, she could still see them from the sofa, and this way, they had at least some semblence of privacy.

Alexis turned back to Jax and said, "I don't care for this at all, you know." She leaned against his shoulder again. "This puts me in a very compromising position."

He murmurred, "Mmhm."

Alexis sat up and looked at him. "And what, exactly, is that supposed to mean?"

He grinned at her. Oh, but that man could be intensely infuriating. "It means that I know you," he said.

"And what is **that** supposed to mean?"

"It means," Jax said, "that you have an overwhelming need to be in control of your emotions, and more importantly, understand them all. You, my love, just had a moment of sympathy and extreme caring for two people that you have convinced yourself to loathe with every fiber of your being, so you had to say something perfectly Cassadine cold in order to make yourself feel better."

Alexis narrowed her eyes at him. "You know nothing," she said. She put her head against his shoulder again. "You only have a soft spot for him because his brother works for you."

"Actually," Jax told her, "I have a soft spot for all Quartermaines because they amuse me. I really don't understand how this town survives with two insanely dysfunctional families living in it. Perhaps because the craziest of your family doesn't actually live here? If Nikolas and Stefan ever decided to move to Port Charles, proper, I fear the entire city would implode."

"Now, you're just having a laugh at my expense, and I don't appreciate it."

"I thought you always appreciated it," he said with a laugh. "I keep you grounded by reminding you that your family is psychotic."

"And the Jacks family isn't? I grant that your family isn't known for poisoning one another, but the Jacks clan is anything but normal."

"I never said that we were," Jax told her. Alexis looked up and Jax winked at her. She rolled her eyes and turned her eyes back down. "But then again, my family doesn't live here, so it's not particularly an issue, now is it?"

"No," Alexis gave, "and we have more pressing issues." She sat up and moved away from Jax. Alexis slid to the other side of the sofa, her eyes on Jason and Sam again. She gripped the back and arm of the sofa as she watched, waiting for the moment when Jason looked up at her with cold eyes that would only mean that Sam was gone.

Jason looked up at her sooner than she had expected and Alexis held her breath. Her head was shaking, and as she moved, she saw Sam's eyes open, her chest slowly rise and fall. She was still alive. Alexis let out a breath of relief. But, if she was still alive, why was Jason still looking at her? Alexis narrowed her eyes and watched, confused, as Jason looked back down to Sam. Sam nodded and Jason looked back at Alexis.

The wind was dying down, finally, and Jason didn't have to quite yell to call Alexis over to them. Alexis looked at Jax and he shook his head. He didn't know what was going on, either. What a shame, when the hosts, no matter how unsuspecting of their visitors, were the last to know what was going on.

Alexis stood and Jax rose a second after her. Alexis reached back and Jax took her hand. He squeezed and, again, she felt better. Something told her that, even though she was the only one called over, she was going to need Jax with her. Alexis moved forward slowly. She skirted the tree limbs that edged the area where Sam lay. She looked back at Jax and again, he nodded. Alexis took another deep breath and continued on.

When she reached Jason and Sam, Alexis knelt down on the floor. She still held onto Jax's hand and she felt his body lowering behind her. "What's going on?" Alexis asked. "Are you cold? Does it hurt?"

Sam shook her head, a minute shake from one side to the other. "I don't really feel all that much," she said. Her voice was soft, and her tone was defeated. She was just lying there, waiting to die.

"Sam has something she wants to tell you," Jason said. Alexis looked to him and he said, "It's her choice to tell you, and she wants…" He paused, shook his head. "Just in case," he said as he turned his head back down to Sam. "Are you sure?" Jason asked her.

"It's what I came here for," Sam told him.

"Wait." Alexis squeezed Jax's hand, then let him go. "I don't understand. You were coming here tonight? Why?"

"No," Sam said. "I was leaving tonight. I came to Port Charles…" Sam winced. She moved her head, tried to bend her neck so she could look up at Jason. "I can't," she said, her voice still soft, still defeated.

"Look," Alexis said, "whatever this is, it can wait. Just because you say you don't feel…" Alexis paused and shook her head. "You're probably just in shock and you've gone numb. I bet if I pinched you, you would feel it. You just aren't moving, so there's nothing to feel. Besides," Alexis went on, "you winced when you moved your head. It hurt all the way down to your toes, didn't it?"

"Yeah," Sam said.

"So, see? You obviously can still feel something. I'm thinking, at worst, your pelvis is crushed. You might have some internal injuries, but we'll know more when the EMTs arrive. Jax spoke to someone and they moved you up the critical list. They're on their way, working their way to us, so how about we just stop the deathbed confessions, alright?"

Alexis was aware that she was rambling, and at the moment, couldn't have cared less. Tomorrow, she would probably be properly embarrassed at the way the words had fallen out of her mouth at such a rapid pace. And really? Had she said that she would pinch her? It didn't matter. There would be no giving up while there was still a chance. Alexis was not having it, not that night.

Alexis pressed her palms against her thighs and pushed herself up. She looked at the tarp that tried to cover the broken window and gave a hard nob. Only the slightest waves moved along the plastic and cloth. The wind was dying down, and she no longer heard heavy snow pounding against the walls and the remaining windows.

"Look at that," Alexis said. "The storm is nearly over, it's finally passing. I'm sure the plows are already out there, and with the storm gone, they can use the emergency helicopters to get to people. So, we will stop this nonsense of confessions right now."

"God, you're a stubborn woman," Sam said.

"Excuse me? I'm not the one waiting for you to die, now am I?"

"Only because you don't want me to die on your floor."

"I don't want you to die, at all! I just want you to stop trying to ruin my career. You are a woman with potential and instead of using it for good, you use it to make sure that justice is never served."

"It's not always justice," Sam said. She grunted and closed her eyes. Sam took in a deep breath and held it. She released her breath after a few beats and opened her eyes. She looked up at Alexis and said, "It's not always Jason, you know."

"We're not having this conversation," Alexis said. "In fact, if you only want to talk about your wasted future or your non-impending death, then we'll not be having any conversation at all." She shook her head and her hands fidgeted at her sides. "The kitchen still works, and amazingly, we still have power. That tree must have managed to miss the power lines when it fell. I'm going to make tea so we can all calm down."

Alexis turned and started to walk away. She was the one that really needed to calm down. She was as worried as anyone else in that room that Sam wasn't going to make it in time for rescue, it was just that her concern came out in a torrent of semi-neurotic ranting, arguing, and ultimately denial. She couldn't have her own denial if Sam insisted upon making deathbed confessions. And what was she going to confess, anyway? That she was the one that wrecked her last case against Jason Morgan? That was no real confession. Alexis already knew that.

"Would you stop!" Jason's voice was strong, but not angry. He sounded frustrated and aggravated. "For once, Alexis, would you just listen to what someone is trying to tell you?"

"I don't want to hear it!"

"It's important! It's—" He stopped so abruptly that Alexis did stop walking and turned back. He looked down at Sam and she was shaking her head, but Jason wasn't going to let it go. He wasn't going to let Sam have her secret and he wasn't going to let Alexis have her denial.

Jason looked up at Alexis and said, "If Sam is going to die tonight, then the least she deserves is to have her mother hold her hand."

Alexis felt as if she had been punched in the gut. Her hand went to her stomach and her eyes grew wide. "What—" She looked at Jax and he was as surprised as Alexis. She looked back at Jason. "What are you talking about?"

"You're the entire reason that Sam came to town."

Alexis shook her head. "No, that's not…" She shook her head again. "I had a daughter," she said. She looked at Jax. He knew about it already. He was the one that had helped her try to find the daughter she had given away, and all of his sources had told her the same thing. "My daughter died five years ago," Alexis said, "in a car accident in Florida."

Jax had searched and come up with death. Frantic, unbelieving, Alexis had Stefan search, and he was the one that had actually handed her a death certificate. "You're mistaken," Alexis said, and she had every intention on turning away, but her feet carried her forward, instead. Her body lowered her to the floor when she reached Sam's side. "My daughter is dead," she said.

"Someone wanted you to think that but…" Jason shook his head. "Sam came here for you."

Alexis looked down at Sam. She felt even more pity for her, now. She had come to this place, might even die in Port Charles, because she had come looking for the wrong mother. "I'm sorry," she told her, "but I'm not your mother."

"Yes, you are," Sam said softly. Her hand came out from beneath the blankets and she was holding a folded sheets of paper. When had Jason put that in her hand? It was crumpled enough for Alexis to tell that Jason had to have dug it out of her pocket. Sam pushed the pages toward Alexis, and she took them from her.

Alexis opened the page, and it was a birth certificate. Her name was on the line for mother. The signature was her own. Alexis remembered being so tired when the paper was put in front of her. She had scrawled her name across it and the page was taken away before she could even ask anyone why the line for the baby's name was blank. The name had been typed in later, obvious because it didn't line up with the rest of the text in that row.

The other sheet was an adoption record. Again, Alexis recognized her own signature. She had cried when her hand was forced to the page. She begged her father not to make her do this, but he said it was for the best. Even Stefan had told her it was for the best, later, when she told him the truth of everything. He knew his own mother, he had told her, and if she had known that Alexis had been pregnant, she would have killed them both. Somehow, Helena would have figured out that Alexis was really Mikkos's daughter, and she would kill them all. It was best for the baby, he told her, same as her father had told her, that she give her away.

Alexis felt Jax reaching for her and she pushed the pages into his hand. She looked down at Sam and shook her head. "I have a death certificate," she whispered.

"It's fake," Sam said softly. "I almost didn't say anything. I was going to leave tonight without saying anything. Jason didn't let me leave."

"And you ended up here."

"Yeah." Sam sighed. "If I'm going to die, can I at least do it holding my mother's hand?"

Alexis looked to Jax and he was still examining the pages. He wasn't instantly shouting false, though, so what did that mean? What did any of it mean, really? Yes, this could be some kind of scam, but what would have been the point of telling at this juncture? But, she had the papers, and Stefan said that her daughter was dead. Could his sources have been wrong? Could he have been the one to forge a fake death certificate?

This was all too much for one night. Alexis took in a deep breath and held it until her lungs burned and her eyes started to water. And all that time, Sam was waiting. Her hand was out, pushing against Alexis's knees, her palm facing up. Sam thought she was going to die, and all she wanted was to hold her mother's hand. Whether Alexis completely believed it or not, and she wasn't entirely sure that she did believe it, or for that matter, that she didn't believe it… No matter what Alexis believed, Sam believed it.

Alexis reached down and laid her palm on top of Sam's. Sam's fingers curled around Alexis's hand and she squeezed with as much pressure as she could manage. Alexis returned a much stronger squeeze. Later, when this was all over, the truth could be found. Alexis could talk to Stefan. She and Sam could have DNA tests done. There were things that could be done later, and if it turned out that Sam was wrong, well, holding her hand now didn't hurt her. No matter the truth of it, Sam believed that Alexis was her mother. If it comforted her until help arrived, well, Alexis could be her mother, at least for a little while.

88


	15. Chapter 15

"At the risk of coming across crude, you could come over here."

Elizabeth was about to ask why that would seem crude but as she caught sight of AJ, and realized the 'over here' he was referring to was beside him on the bed she stopped. Her body reacting several seconds behind her brain, her mouth closed with an audible pop. She mentally kicked herself. He was being nice. It was rather cold in the room and it wasn't as though either were leaving anytime soon. It was nothing more than that.

But what if it was?

It wasn't, because that wasn't the kind of life that Elizabeth was having. Or, maybe it was, because if she really faced facts, she wasn't just letting herself believe that an attractive, rich older guy was interested in her. She was letting herself believe that an attractive, rich older guy who was also an alcoholic whose family had so much baggage its weight could sink a ship. Elizabeth didn't have a whole lot of experience with men, but all the experience she did have seemed to have come with massive amounts of baggage.

"Or," AJ said, "you could stay over there if you prefer."

Elizabeth shook her head. "No," she said. She shook her head again. "I mean, I was just thinking about it."

"I didn't think it would require that much thought. You're cold, aren't you?"

Elizabeth nodded. "Yes." And once she had actually voiced it, the fact really fell on her. She felt the cold coming through the windows more. Her body shivered. Elizabeth hugged herself. She ran her hands up and down her arms. "It's cold."

"Then, come over here. I hear body heat does wonders for cold."

Was he being sarcastic or was he really just thinking about body heat? Elizabeth missed the time when she was more sure of herself, when she trusted her own thoughts. She'd been shaken with the initial fire, and just when she thought she was regaining herself, Lucky came back, and well, that started everything all over again. Now, she didn't know what thoughts were right, what perceptions were real, what was the truth of anything that anyone said.

Elizabeth moved her legs slowly, tentative as she crossed the floor, wary not only of AJ but of herself. What if she said something stupid? What if she managed to embarrass herself even more than she had already done? They were stuck together until help arrived. Those could be some very uncomfortable hours if Elizabeth misinterpreted anything that AJ said or did. And then, how would she be able to look Emily in the eye? AJ surely would go back and tell her everything that her whacked out friend did, and then, well, she probably wouldn't have had to worry about looking Emily in the eye, because she probably would never speak to her again other than to accuse her of being desperate and putting the moves on her vulnerable, injured brother.

Elizabeth took in a deep breath and moved quicker. She was even more unsure, now, but she also knew that if she didn't get over to the bed quickly, she'd never go. She would probably just grab a blanket and curl up on the floor. As awkward as a misstep would have been, curling up on the floor would have been just downright uncomfortable, painful even, after a few hours.

The bed looked uncomfortable. Tiny balls of fabric had long since started to form and now almost covered the brown blanket that laid over AJ's legs. It looked like it would itch, and the wash-worn white sheet beneath it looked barely thick enough to ward off the itch. AJ's body sank in odd, uneven places, giving the sense that the mattress was lumpy. The pillows were flat and the pillowcases hadn't been bright white in years.

But, still, it was a bed, and there were blankets. At the same time that she wanted to run from what would be the worst bed in town, she was also drawn to it. There was warmth beneath those blankets. The bed, lumpy as it may have been, was undoubtedly softer than the cold, hard wood of the floor.

Elizabeth finished her walk to the bed with three quick steps. She sat on the bed, then bent down to unzip her boots. She moved quickly. She lowered the zipper and yanked the boot off of her foot. She tossed it to the floor, then quickly did the same with the other, careful not to let her feet touch the floor. Her socks were thin, and Elizabeth had no doubt that the cold would go straight through them.

Without looking at AJ, Elizabeth swung her legs up on the bed, and then realized that she was on top of the covers. She ignored the snickers that came from her right as she lifted up enough to shove the covers down. She scurried beneath the blankets and was relieved that she was still wearing enough clothes not to feel the itch that she had projected onto the bedding. Elizabeth hunched down and brought the covers up to just below her neck.

"Comfortable?" AJ asked, once she was settled in.

"Not really," she said. Still, she didn't look at him. No one Elizabeth knew seemed to believe that a man and a woman could just be friends, and because of that, she was terrified that someone was going to walk in the door and suspect that something was going on. Not that she particularly cared about the judgments. She was more worried about her own inability to come up with some kind of witty comeback on the fly. She was trying to give herself a new image, a new self, and she didn't know who that new person was going to be yet. She knew how the new-to-town Elizabeth would have reacted, and she knew how Lucky's Elizabeth would have reacted, but this new person that she was becoming… What would she have to say when someone inevitably walked into the room?

"You look like you're about to jump out of your skin," AJ said.

"I do not." Elizabeth chanced a look at him. AJ's eyes were curious. His lips were puckered. She continued to look at his face, forced her chin to stay raised, otherwise, she'd find herself ogling his chest and that was wholly unnecessary and outrageous of her to do. Besides, she was going to have to check him later, check his bruise, and that would give her plenty of an excuse to ogle. She didn't need to be excessive.

AJ's confusion turned to mocking. His lip turned up and his eyes lightened as he smirked. "Y es, you do," he said. "Despite what you may have been told, I don't bite."

"Nobody ever said that you were a—" Elizabeth stopped herself. Completing that sentence was just going to get her mocked even more. She congratulated herself on being aware enough to realize what she was about to say before the sentence made it all the way out of her mouth. Elizabeth closed her eyes for a second, then reopened them.

"The only person I know who talks about you," she said, "is Emily, and she only says the best things about you that she can."

"Is that right?"

"You know it's right. She stands up for you like it was her job, and maybe she thinks that it is. According to her, you get a raw deal on a regular basis."

"I'm not going to argue with her opinion, mostly because she'd probably sense it, then go out in this mess just so she could argue with me about it. I will say, though, that I wouldn't have thought Em talked about me to her friends that much."

"Not friends," Elizabeth said, "just me. I'm her best friend." Did that sound childish? Why did she particularly care? Elizabeth sighed. "She needs someone to talk to, and she knows that I'll listen."

"What else has she said?"

"You know what she's said, because she's probably said it to you a thousand times. In fact, she says that a lot. She says, 'I keep telling him that he's a good person and he doesn't deserve any of this, and he keeps not listening to me.' She hates that you won't listen to her."

"What can I say?" AJ said. "I excel in self-deprecation. If it was an Olympic event, I'd win the gold medal every year."

"And see, I don't get that. I mean, yeah, you've had a pretty crappy time of it, but you've come a long way since then."

"I essentially killed my brother, as far as my family's concerned."

"You got him back, though, didn't you? Emily says the Quartermaines give you grief for that because they're jealous. Jason's friends with you now, even though you were behind the wheel that night, but he still barely talks to anyone else other than Emily and Lila."

"Sounds like Emily has a lot to say. What do you think?"

Elizabeth shrugged. "What does it matter what I think? I'm nobody. I'm just Emily's friend."

"Humor me," AJ said. "Right now, you're all I have as a sounding board, and you're doing pretty well so far. Besides, maybe I want to hear what someone not related to me thinks."

Elizabeth sighed. Well, at least if she started to think, yet again, that something might be going on with AJ, she wouldn't be doing it solely based on his being attractive and her being vulnerable. This was real conversation, real getting to know you stuff. Maybe that's who the new Elizabeth Webber was going to be, someone that other people trusted enough to ask her opinion, someone that others would really take seriously. That was kind of necessary when it came to being a nurse, so she figured it was a pretty good person to be.

She turned her thoughts to all of those conversations she'd had in the past with Emily. While they were going on, Elizabeth had done her best not to form any kind of opinion. She knew that Emily wasn't actually asking her for her opinion on the whole thing. She just wanted a safe place to rant, and that was fine with Elizabeth. She hadn't actually known AJ all that well, anyway, at least not well enough to really make an opinion on his character or anything.

Remembering all of it, though, and in the present trying to form an opinion, Elizabeth realized that she knew AJ pretty well. Or, at least she knew Emily's idea of AJ pretty well. When she thought on all of those conversations, Elizabeth tried to separate the facts of various situations that Emily had given her from her friend's opinons on those matters. She pushed Emily's views to the side and focused on the actual events, the actual descriptions of how people treated AJ, and the times that she had actually seen AJ and his family interact. The Quartermaines had no problem berating one another in public, and Elizabeth had seen more than one confrontation that left her feeling AJ's secondhand embarrassment.

The more she thought about it, the more Elizabeth realized that she had, at least subconsciously, been forming an opinion all along. It was never one that she thought she would have to share, unless Emily asked her. She didn't even know if she would have admitted it to her if she had asked. Emily was supposed to be listening, not really taking in, and in case her opinion on AJ ever changed from being at least similar to Emily's, she didn't want her friend to think that she couldn't come and bounce her rants off of her anymore. But, AJ was asking, and the air was tense enough. She didn't need to make the hours even harder to bear by either lying or refusing to talk to him.

"Well," Elizabeth finally said, "I think Em has a point. I mean, your family is known for holding a grudge, and Jason's been accused of holding a deadly grudge since his accident, so it would only stand to reason that the Quartermaines would expect that he'd hate you forever for causing the accident. But, Em says that Jason's kind of glad to be out of that family, and he likes his new life, and since he can't remember the old one…" She shrugged. "It didn't turn out the way they expected, so yeah, I think they are taking it out on you."

"And if you could look Faison and Helena in the face, you wouldn't give them hell for taking Lucky away from you?"

Elizabeth didn't want to talk about Lucky. She wanted to forget about Lucky as much as she could, and she didn't appreciate AJ bringing it up. But, since he hadn't been cruel to her, she had to assume that it was his defense mechanism. He had asked the question, probably thinking she'd eventually say what he wanted her to say, but he didn't really want to hear it, so he pushed her toward ending the conversation all together. Maybe that would have worked with the old Elizabeth, but the new Elizabeth wasn't going to just be someone that people went to for opinions. She was going to be someone that actually said those opinions once asked and didn't cave in when it got to tough.

"We're not talking about me," she said, "but as it relates to you, yeah, I can see how they feel, too. There's a difference, though. Yours was an accident. You weren't trying to hurt anyone. You've apologized all that you can, and more importantly, the person you really hurt has forgiven you. If Jason has forgiven you, then it's time the rest of your family did, too."

"Do you care to tell them that?"

"Maybe I would if I didn't think it would be like talking to a brick wall. The Quartermaines worship the ground Emily walks on and they haven't listened to her. They barely know me, even if they do know my family, so there's no way that they're going to listen to me. Besides, it's not important that they hear what Emily or I have to say. It's important that you hear it, and you believe it."

"Is that so?"

"Yes, that's so. You're the one that's getting hurt, and you can stop it from happening. Stop letting them get to you. Jeez, AJ, look at yourself. You're successful. You have the relationship with Jason that they wish they could have. You always have Emily at your back, even if you mess up. You have people who believe in you. You have a lot and you shouldn't take it for granted."

"I don't think Emily counts as people," AJ said.

"Yeah, well, maybe I believe in you, too," Elizabeth told him. "You came to rescue me from myself, whether I wanted you to or not doesn't really matter, solely because it was the right thing to do. And, you did it more than once, with this time being in a blizzard. Sure, you can say it was because of Emily, but deep down, you did it because you thought it was the right thing to do. You've made your amends, and you're trying to better yourself. You're a good person, AJ, and quite frankly, I've put my faith in far worse than you. So, yeah. How's that for what I think on the whole thing?"

AJ looked at her in silence, and Elizabeth could feel each of those seconds ticking away as if she were each tick on the clock, and the quickly moving second hand slapped her on the back at each pass. His eyes were wide, surprised, and it was the look that Emily said he got every time she told him he was a good person. He was really so unaccustomed to anyone telling him that he was worth anything that he was truly surprised when a new person added her voice to the chorus.

AJ cleared his throat after what felt like ten minutes, but could have only been a minute and a half, two at the most. "Well," he said, "I guess I asked for that."

"You asked for my opinion," she said.

"That I did," AJ said. "I thank you for it."

"Y ou're welcome."

Elizabeth turned her head away from AJ. She looked straight forward as she burrowed down beneath the thin coverings. When she was lying flat on her back, she looked up at the ceiling. The covers curled below her neck again. " You're not a horrible person, AJ," Elizabeth said.

She felt him move beside her, though not much. He didn't wriggle on the bed or lower himself down. He did, however, gingerly reach down for the blankets and pull them up higher on his body. "I keep thinking that one day, I'll believe that," he said.

"Well, it feels kind of good telling it to you, so I guess I'll join in with Emily's chorus whenever you need to hear it."

"You're a good person, too, you know," he said. "You didn't need to make me feel better. You didn't need to tell me any of that. You could have just told me to shut up so you could get some sleep or rest or whatever."

"I guess."

"If what you said is true, then so is what I said," AJ told her. "You're a good person, Elizabeth Webber, and anybody should be glad to have you on their side."

Elizabeth didn't have a lot of words in response. She didn't know if she should thank him, argue with him, or what. She said, "You, too, AJ," and let that be enough. Elizabeth closed her eyes and listened to the wind against the window. She let herself relax, hoping to slowly work herself into sleep. Being awake was becoming too much for Elizabeth to handle.


End file.
